Network Laws and Information in 5 Years

In class we learned about a few network “laws” or in other words, concepts about the value of a network.

We can all agree that generally, a larger network with more users will be more valuable (in regards to advertising dollars- something that I want to focus on as an Advertising major). So a wide-area network will probably have more value to advertisers than a local area network.

Not only does a network gain value when a user is connected to it, but there is also value when a user connects with other users. However, I do not think that this value is exponential. Therefore, I disagree with Reed’s Law. On the other side of the spectrum, Sarnoff’s Law doesn’t even consider the value of users connecting to one another, so this law is lacking as well.

Overall, even though there are flaws, I do think that Metcalfe’s Law is probably the best one. This law considers all potential connections/relationships on a network. What I like about this law is that it shows how many connections could be made possible. But if someone was using Metcalfe’s Law to analyze a network’s value, they should strongly consider the fact that not all connections will occur.

Right now, people gain information through several sources, including wirelessly. It is very hard to say how people will get information 5 years from now. Maybe a new technology will replace the Internet in the next five years! 5 years ago I did not expect that I would ever have a smartphone, even when iphones had just been put on the market. I viewed smartphones as something with many flaws (touchscreens seemed so finicky, why have all that on your phone when you can have several devices that do specialized tasks, like a nice digital camera). I have learned not to be surprised by new technologies. When my dad was in college, he studied graphic design. His degree was almost immediately made obsolete when he graduated because shortly after the new computer programs for graphic designing were invented. Huge technological changes can occur very quickly!

If I use my imagination to dream up our future in 5 years, I would say that maybe people didn’t use small cellphones at all anymore and phones gradually became about the size of an ipad/tablet. For some reason, the larger screen sizes seem to be the biggest trend lately for smartphones. Maybe talking on the phone will be more of a separate entity, like a similar idea to bluetooths.

Why We Blog

“Why We Blog” is a report on a study conducted by Nardi, Shiano, Gumbrecht and Shwartz which investigates the reasons why people blog. Surprisingly, they were able to find many bloggers with varied motives for blogging around the Stanford University area. The researchers organized their findings into 5 reasons why people blog. These areas include documenting everyday life, making comments and opinions, expressing personal emotions, writing ideas, and keeping up with an online community. Each one of these 5 reasons was thoroughly explained, with several examples. They found that nearly all the bloggers had personally-set limits to what material they would share on their blog. They also found that one advantage to blogging is the lack of one specific audience member, as opposed to emailing. By writing to no one in particular, blogs are only read by choice (as Lara, one of the bloggers described in the report says, ‘no one is forced to pay attention’).
Considering that this report was published in 2004, it is interesting that so many people were blogging in that one area. The bloggers seemed to have very clear understandings of their blogs’ purposes. I am surprised by this clarity because blogging was a relatively new concept at the time (I think?).
The 5 reasons to blog seem to be the same today as they were then. My all-time favorite blog, A Cup of Jo, written by Joanna Goddard, may be classified under many of these reasons. A lot of her posts do document her daily activities, especially big life-steps with her two sons and her marriage. But I don’t necessarily think she documents her life for her family/friends to “keep up”- I think a lot of it has to do with her nation-wide audience’s interest in her life. Her readers, including me, are fascinated by her sons beautiful faces and their upbringing in NYC. We are excited to see glimpses of her apartment décor, etc. And Joanna doesn’t mind sharing these details with her readers. I adore her and I think I would treat her like a celebrity if I saw her in real life. But when I read her blog, I think of her as a friend, someone normal who is trying to figure things out (she asks us for advice on her apartment wall color and where to take her boys on mother-son dates). So clearly, her blog does document her life. But her blog does other things too: like I said, she does have an online community between her blog and her readers (but also between her blog and other blogs). She shares (noncontroversial and respectful) opinions of things like NY legalizing gay marriage.
Overall, my main observation is that the 5 reasons to blog, as described in the report, are still very accurate. Every blog has a purpose and I think every reason to blog is a good reason :)

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