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The Future of Information
Published in Marcus K. Weldon, The Future X Network, 2018
The development of written language (5000 BCE) dramatically changed human existence by addressing this “localized” constraint for the first time. Questions, observations and answers could now be communicated without the need for direct interaction or physical presence. A single document could be shared with many individuals — amplifying the ability to communicate broadly to a diverse set of people who could add to, edit or correct the information and recommunicate the new perspective. Communication was unconstrained by location or time, as the information could be accurately reproduced and augmented over generations and epochs. This led to disproportionally greater value as the result of a network effect, often described as Metcalfe’s Law.1 This disruption in scale was driven by the mail and transportation network, but was also catalyzed by related technological inventions such as movable type and the printing press, which dramatically lowered the cost of producing “data records” so that multiple copies could be made and distributed in parallel (Eisenstein 1983).
The Current Status of Project Management
Published in J. Chris White, Robert M. Sholtes, The Dynamic Progress Method, 2016
J. Chris White, Robert M. Sholtes
One of the main reasons why project failures occur at a proportional rate compared to the size of the project (i.e., small projects have small rates of failure, medium projects have medium rates of failure, and large projects have large rates of failure) is simply that there are more opportunities for failure. Consider Metcalfe’s law (named after Robert Metcalfe), which characterizes many of the network effects of communication technologies and things like the Internet and social networking. Metcalfe’s law has often been used to express the value of a node in a network, such as a connection in a social network. One person alone has no connections and, therefore, no value (in this example with regards to the social network). But, the value of each additional person into the social network increases the value to all the people in the network because the total number of connections to and from any one person greatly increase. And, the greater the number of people in the social network, the greater its value. Mathematically, the number of unique connections in a network of nodes (e.g., people, computers, parts in a system, tasks in a project) are governed by the following equation: Number of connections=N×(N−1)/2.
Networked Media in an IT Environment
Published in Al Kovalick, Video Systems in an IT Environment, 2013
Robert Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet (Gilder 1993), once declared a decree now known as Metcalfe’s law: “The value of a network of interconnected devices grows as the square of connected elements.” What did he mean? Well, consider an email system of two members. Likely, boring and limited. But a billion member population is much more interesting and useful. So too with media interconnectivity. As the number of connected elements and users grows, the power of productivity grows as the square of the connected devices. Collaborative works, file sharing, common metadata, and media are all powerfully leveraged when networked. Networking also adds layers of software complexity, which must be managed by the IT staff.
Exploring the Determinants of Blockchain Acceptance for Research Data Management
Published in Journal of Computer Information Systems, 2023
Since blockchain-based services are physically applying peer-to-peer network systems, their value increases proportionally with the number of nodes participating in the blockchain. Users can also estimate the stability of the service through the size of the network that a particular blockchain platform has. Thus, the physical scalability of the network naturally affects the subjective value recognition of potential users. This argument is supported the Metcalfe’s Law which correlated the value of the network with the square of its number of active users. Alabi34 found that the value of blockchain network positively correlated with an exponential of the root of the number of active users. If the value of network rapidly increases without the increase of the number of active users, the network could have some bubbles. Queiroz and Fosso Wamba29 found that social norms affect the intention to use blockchain in the logistics management areas of India and the United States.