Information and Networks

The three network laws are Sarnoff’s Law, Metcalfe’s Law, and Reed’s Law. Sarnoff’s Law has to do more with ratings and shares. It is when the value of the network increases linearly with the number of people on it. This applies to traditional broadcasting like television and radio. Metcalfe’s Law has to do with communication networks. It is where a communications network has “n” members and each member can make “n-1” connections. They subtract one, because you cannot count yourself. For this law the value of a communication network increases roughly by “n^2.” The bad things about this law is that the value isn’t defined and it assumes all connections are equal. Reed’s Law has to do with social network affiliations. It claims that utility of a network with “n” members increases exponentially or “2^n.” This explains the power of social networks and various groups that form because of network affiliations. I agree mostly with Reed’s Law, because it applies to what is going on in today’s society with Social Networking. Also Sarnoff’s Law just focuses on traditional media and does not include online networks and Metcalfe’s Law assumes all connections are equal when they are not. I think those are two huge disadvantages to those laws. Five years from now I think people will get their information by searching for it on their devices. I think that everything electronic will be able to connect to the internet, including televisions. Even now, gaming systems can connect to the internet to play other gamers across the world and you can tell when you friends are “online.” Right now everything is going digital. Books are being published online and readers can just download all their favorite books to their kindle. That’s just one of the many devices that can hold tons of information and you can also search anything you want from the device. I think as time progresses our society will become almost completely digital.