Reed's law

The (third) Reed's Law is the assertion of the Internet pioneer David P. Reed (* 1952) that the usefulness of large networks increases exponentially with their size. This also applies in particular to social networks .

This is because the number of possible subgroups is. Here N denotes the number of participants. ${\displaystyle 2^{N}-N-1\,}$

That number is increasing faster than

• The number of participants N
• The number of possible two-way connections of (sometimes referred to as Metcalfe's law ). ${\displaystyle {\frac {N(N-1)}{2}}}$

Although the usefulness of available groups per group is quite small, the networking effect of possible group membership can dominate the overall economy of a system.

There are two other, lesser-known Reed's laws with different content. According to Reed, this article describes his third law.

See also: social capital

Web links

• David Reed's website - explanation in English.
• Reeds 3rd Law - ibid
• Weapon of Math Destruction (PDF; 92 kB) - explanatory article by David P. Reed

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Reed's First Law
2. ↑ Second Reed's Law