Lectures discussed certain proposed "laws" governing network effects - from RCA executive David Sarnoff's formulation that the value of a broadcast network is proportional to the number of viewers (who form an advertising audience as well), to Bob Metcalfe’s law, which proposes that the value of a network goes up as the square of the number of users, and David Reed's assertion that the utility of large networks (particularly social networks) scales exponentially. But arguably, a fundamental flaw underlying proposals like Metcalfe’s and Reed’s laws is

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Lectures discussed certain proposed "laws" governing network effects - from RCA executive David Sarnoff's formulation that the value of a broadcast network is proportional to the number of viewers (who form an advertising audience as well), to Bob Metcalfe’s law, which proposes that the value of a network goes up as the square of the number of users, and David Reed's assertion that the utility of large networks (particularly social networks) scales exponentially. But arguably, a fundamental flaw underlying proposals like Metcalfe’s and Reed’s laws is

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The question describes several proposed “laws” of network effects and asks us to identify a fundamental flaw underlying proposals like Metcalfe’s and Reed’s laws.
First, note that the single provided option is: 'that they simply assign equal value to all connections.'
This claim points to a key conceptual issue: in real networks, not every connection contributes equally to value. Some ties bridge distinct communities or regularize high-traffic paths, while others are redundant or carry little ongoing utility. Treating all links as equally valuable ignores factors such as link strength, frequency of interaction, economic or social significance, and the topology of the network (for example, whether connections create bridges between otherwise separate clusters).
A second way to see the flaw is to consider the diminishing returns of adding more connections for a given node. Metcalfe’s law, for instance, assumes value grows with the square of users, which overweights peripheral or low-importance connections and can overestimate marginal gains. Reed’s assertion of exponential utility similarly risks conflating network size with practical usefulness, since scale alone does not guarantee proportional increases in value for all members or all types of activity within the network.
A third angle is about heterogeneity of connections. In many networks, a few critical links or hubs disproportionately drive network effects, while many other links contribute only modest value. Hence, a uniform value assignment fails to capture unequal importance and the network’s actual resilience, efficiency, or market impact.
Additionally, these laws often abstract away contextual factors such as user behavior, network latency, interoperability, and the quality of interactions, all of which modulate real-world value beyond mere counts of nodes or edges.
In short, the central critique embedded in the option is that equating all connections in a network ignores the varying strength, relevance, and strategic value of different ties, leading to an over-simplified and potentially misleading valuation of network effects.

FMS87 Intro to Digital... week 2: quiz 1

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