• Who really benefits from a digitally networked society? Big business or individuals? Refer to ‘loop theory’ and the ‘Dunbar number’
• Large businesses benefit mostly from a digitally networked society because of ‘the loop theory’, this theory suggests that there can be many links just from one business to another helping businesses grow and evolve. However the dunbar number suggests that one individual can only have so many stable social links with people implying that an individual will have a lot less links than a large business.
• How does big business benefit? What commodity do they trade in? Answer: predictive human behavior.
• Big businesses benefit because it means they can have a lot more links with other businesses making trading easier and profits for that business higher.
  

On one hand, big businesses benefit from digitally networked societies are they are able to maintain their popularity by using different media platforms to advertise and connect. However, it can be useful for individuals for self promotion just on a much smaller scale.

Network Effect – Theodore Vail

Network Effects describes the phenomenon how the value of a good or service increases as more people start to use that good or service.

Feedback loop theory – Norbert Wiener

States that a person has habits and interests, which can be found out and used by media companies to target and market media to consumers based on their interests and habits. This is more effective than targeting non-specific adverts or media at consumers as it is more likely to grab their attention.

Dunbar number

Suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships—relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person.

Who really benefits from a digitally networked society? Big business or individuals? Refer to ‘loop theory’ and the ‘Dunbar number’

Key words associated with new media

Active – frequent user of new technology, more people use technology nowadays. notifications keep you updated and using the app/software

Circulate – spread a product so more people will buy – Teen vogue circulates magazines online to enlarge their audience

What is the Network effect (Theodore Vail)? The Network effect is where a good service gains value as more consumers use it.

Feedback Loop Theory is where one tracks positive and negative feedback, so they can use this and continue to develop their current product.

What is the Dunbar Number? It’s how many people you can maintain a social stable relationship with. The theory is that most people can maintain 150 people.

What is the network effect? (Theodore Vail) – Larger numbers of people improve the internet eg the more people there are the more opportunities 1 person has to connect with others

Can you remember what ‘feedback loop theory’? (Norbert Wiener) – Track repeated movements, provides information about system successes and problems, this can be used to predict when something will occur

What is the Dunbar number? (Robin Dunbar) – Limit of how many stable social relationships a person can have (150 people), where they know the person eg name, face, personality. The average person usually connects with about 5-10 people a day

What is the Network effect? (Theodore Vail)

Then network effect says that a particular service or a value of a product increases as the amount of people using it increases. For example Facebook wouldn’t be as useful if as many people weren’t using it.

What is the ‘Feedback Loop Theory’ by Norbert Wiener?

A feedback loop is a concept found in systems theory. Feedback loops provide information to an organization about system successes and problems. Success results in a positive feedback loop and problems create a negative feedback loop.

What is the Dumbar number?

Dunbar’s number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships—relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person.

Who really benefits from a digitally networked society? Big business or individuals? Refer to ‘loop theory’ and the ‘Dunbar number’

Businesses are more likely to benefit from a networked society as it allows them to target more than 150 (dumbar number), people are less likely to benefit from a networked society as their cognitive abilities suggest that they can be friends with up to 150 people (usually 10 people).

Key words associated with new media

share	active	creative	host
story	re-connect	personalise	stream
experience	store	scale	immerse
interface	live	adapt	binge
conversation	re-perform	circulate	endless

share – the process of publishing information within the internet or a social media

live – a form of media, usually auditory of visual that is in real life time parallel with the consumers

Active – when a person or media platform is frequently interacting with its internet activities.

Table to contrast ‘New’ vs ‘Old’ Media: Do you agree?

NEW MEDIA	OLD MEDIA
Active involvement	Passive involvement
Two-way conversation	One-way conversation
Open system	Closed system
Transparent	Opaque
One-on-one marketing	Mass marketing
About Me	About You
Brand and User-generated Content	Professional content
Authentic content	Polished content
FREE platform	Paid platform
Metric: Engagement	Metric: Reach/ frequency
Actors: Users / Influencers	Actors/ Celebrities
Community decision-making	Economic decision-making
Unstructured communication	Controlled communication
Real time creation	Pre-produced/ scheduled
Bottom-up strategy	Top-down strategy
Informal language	Formal language

• What is the network effect? (Theodore Vail)
• More people participate in something so it gradually expands into a massive community.
• Can you remember what ‘feedback loop theory’? (Norbert Wiener) 21 mins into video
• What is the Dunbar number? (Robin Dunbar)
• Dunbar’s number is a suggested limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships which is a maximum number of 150.

What is the network effect? (theodore vail)

The network effect is a case of an increased number of people participating in something which leads to an increased value. Vail said  “each little system would have been independent and self-contained without benefit to any other.” A telephone without a connection at the other end, Vail explained, “is one of the most useless things in the world. Its value depends on the connection with the other telephone — and increases with the number of connections.” 

What is the feedback loop theory? (norbert wiener)

The theory that our brains get used to doing something and it becomes second nature to do it. Eg walking – you don’t have to constantly think about the next step.

What is the dunbar number? (robin dunbar)

Dunbar’s number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people that one can maintain stable social relationships with (relationships where an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person)

What is the network effect? (Theodore Vail)

The more people use a good or a service the better it becomes and the more value it holds.

What is ‘feedback loop theory’? (Norbert Wiener)

Using previous data collected to predict future behaviors. e.g. walking.

What is the Dunbar number? (Robin Dunbar)

The number of stable social interactions that somebody can have. (4 or 6 stable social relationships)

Who really benefits from a digitally networked society? Big business or individuals? Refer to ‘loop theory’ and the ‘Dunbar number’

How do big businesses benefit? What commodity do they trade in? 

The Network Effect (Theodore Vail) – the idea that certain things only have value if lots of people use them. Network Effects describes how the value of a good or service increases as more people start to use that good or service.

Feedback Loop Theory (Norbert Wiener) – tracking successes in things as a pattern and finding specific patterns in these movements. Feedback loops provide information to an organization about system successes and problems. Success results in a positive feedback loop and problems create a negative feedback loop. Sharing information to help companies make money through predictive human behavior and target specific audiences.

Dunbar Number (Robin Dunbar) – a limit to the number of people that someone can maintain good relationships with. Relationships where the person knows each person individually and personally.