Metcalfe’s law states that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n2).
“Two fax machines can [at most] make one connection, five can make 10 connections, and twelve can make 66 connections.”
Metcalfe’s law is the only reason I use Twitter, Google Buzz, and Facebook.
Some people argue that they use Twitter and Facebook because of how easy it is to share and receive information. And I agree, but I would rather go into the root of all of this and say people use them because they make it easier to connect.
That’s all. Simply, to connect. And, the faster and easier it is, the better.
Telephones were used because they allowed people to connect faster than mail. Then email was adopted by the people because not only did it connect them as the telephone had, but because it let them share large amounts of information almost instantaneously. And, it let them to store that information (and the connection that came with it) for a later time, making it easier for them to re-view the information and re-connect.
Now, cellphones are replacing land lines because people have one with them everywhere they go (they don’t sit at home waiting for the phone to ring). With a home phone you could state that the reason you weren’t connected was because “you weren’t home” but what the cellphone has done is eliminate that.
With the adoption of the cellphone one has no excuse for not being continuously connected.
That why BBM (blackberry messenger) works so well; unlimited FREE connections; hardly any excuses for not being connected. There’s even the functionality to see if the person you’re trying to connect to has in fact received the connection and is ignoring you. BBM works so well because it’s cheap and easy. And as new cheaper and easier services come along we will adopt them faster and faster. Just look at Skype.
But most importantly look at Twitter.
The best mixing of internet, email, and cellphone we have to date.
With Twitter we still use the cellphone medium to stay continuously and instantly connected to the people we know (no need to re-invent the wheel). But Twitter took this up a notch and gave us the ability to connect with the world; not just people we know.
Sure we have telephone books, and we could call anyone/everyone in the book if we wanted too. But do telephone books list the occupations, interests, and hobbies of the people right next to them? Do telephone books allow us to view (in a sense) the humour, wisdom, and chidlish nature of a person? No.
Twitter allowed us this privilege.
With Twitter we could not only connect with the people who are already in our social circle and share information with them easier but also connect to more likeminded people.
Now, Twitter wouldn’t be of any use
- if the user base wasn’t as large as it is
- if all you could do was connect to one person at a time
- and if in order to share large amounts of information you were charged.
Going back to Metcalfe’s law we realize that if only two people were using Twitter it would be pointless, if five people were using it it wouldn’t be that much of a difference but ten connections are exponentially greater than one. The real magic happens once we get twelve or more people connected. And since Twitter’s user-base is so large, our ability to connect with anyone in the world is that much easier.
If I dare say, we have the potential to connect with anyone in the world.
If Twitter didn’t allow us to “talk” with a large number of people individually at one time I don’t think it would be as great as it is now. Email got it right by allowing us to send a message to a large group of people.
But what we want as humans is to connect with the crowd on an individual level.
We don’t want to send everyone the same message, that’s just bland and to an extent inhuman. We want to talk with everyone, personally. We want to talk to people we don’t necessarily know but want to know (demonstrated by how many people want to get to know celebrities), we want to talk to them in public (@ replies), and if the connection is that much “stronger” to talk with them on a private level (Direct Messages).
If Twitter was charging people for it’s services it would have never, ever [ever] been what it is today. But by offering it’s services for free Twitter has set up a universal BBM of sorts, that allows people to not only instantly share information through cellphones (texting), but also through the internet, email, etc.
And Twitter has come to realize that these connections mean nothing if nobody in the connection understands one another.
If everyone in the connection speaks a different language, then the connection is worthless.
Hence, Twitter is racing to be featured in as many languages as possible.
I use Twitter (and Facebook, Google Buzz, etc.) because of all these reasons. They allow me to connect with a large number of people on an individual level; they allow me to nurture and grow an acquaintance type relationship to a friendship (or love) relationship; they allows me to share information (no matter the size) freely and instantly; and at their core level
They allow me to connect with the entire world.
photo credit: opensourceway