AN EXTENSION OF METCALFE’S LAW AND REED’S LAW TO MEDIA RICHNESS

摘要

Metcalfe’s and Reed’s Laws shows the network effect value of adding more nodes to a networkor more people to a social group. Reed’s law assumes that more groups can form when morepeople are added because the forum provides for easy group formation. It does not look at howthis is accomplished. This paper extends these laws to media richness which is seen to enableeasy group formation. It uses the SMCR model and media richness to provide the mechanism bywhich groups communicate through Reed’s law, and thus are capable of forming groups. Anextended formula similar to Metcalfe’s law and Reed’s law is provided and discussed.