RE: size and network value

Even if you can reckon the market value of network components, without a
utility value you won't be able to differentiate a social network from a
communications network.  It's like comparing the value of two vehicle sales
lots by counting the vehicles instead of finding out the opportunity value
of pickup trucks vs family sedans.  A family might own one or both depending
on capital resources available.

My sense of this is the utility value of a given social network vs the
enabling technology is tied up there.  You want to know how the social
network technology is used by the particular society at hand and what they
will trade-off (resource allocation) to have that.

Then you have a rational way to compare say LinkedIn to Facebook
(specialization and comparative advantage).

len

-----Original Message-----
From: public-xg-socialweb-request@w3.org
[mailto:public-xg-socialweb-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Dan Brickley
Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2010 11:06 AM
To: Harry Halpin
Cc: Henry Story; public-xg-socialweb@w3.org
Subject: Re: size and network value

On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 1:17 AM, Harry Halpin <hhalpin@ibiblio.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 6:11 PM, Henry Story <henry.story@gmail.com>
wrote:
>> Just a thought following todays talk.
>>
>> Why not get some networg graph experts to help us work out what the value
of a global
>> social web would be? There is a lot of research in the field of network
theory, and there
>> may be some interesting insights to be had from those areas.
>
> I agree - you think there would be someone who can judge information
> "liquidity" as Tim Anglade put it and imagine some bright economicst
> could figure it out.

I disagree that this is worth our attempting, at least for the report.

"The value of a global social Web" is a monsterously vague item. It
would be hard enough to to price something concrete like "two million
laptops, configured with Ubuntu version x and wired up with XMPP
accounts". If we can say what it is, we can't reasonably ask someone
else to slap a price tag on it...

Not that it isn't worth talking about, and I won't object to seeing
mail traffic on the topic. But nobody is in a position to answer such
questions really...

Dan
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Received on Thursday, 1 July 2010 16:21:46 UTC