• What is the network effect? (Theodore Vail)
  • The Network effect explains the effect that the user of a service or product has on the value of the product or the service.

• Can you remember what ‘feedback loop theory’? (Norbert Wiener) 21 mins into video
  • Also known as cybernetics, Norbert Wiener explains that cybernetics is the scientific study that looks into how humans, animals and machines communicate with and can control each other.
  • It emphasizes how there is predictive behavior in humans

• What is the Dunbar number? (Robin Dunbar)
  • The Dunbar effect is also called the rule of 150 and is the number of stable social interactions that somebody can have, when in reality, it is only really 4, 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’

I personally think that big businesses benefit from a digitally networked society because the Dunbar number is 150 and a business can take the data from that 150 people that someone knows and sell it onto other businesses with the 150 people that people related to the original person know. For example if Sally Smith knows 150 people on Twitter and is interested in tea towels and her friend Bob White likes books, then they can sell the data onto other businesses in order to create lots of business

Q: How does big business benefit? What commodity do they trade in? Answer: predictive human behaviour. Write out an answer in your own words.

Businesses benefit massively because they sell data onto other businesses, which helps them to make money. They can then predict what to target advertising wise. For example, in the summer an AI can predict that more people will click on an ad link to their site for swimwear and beachwear rather than if it was advertised on a website during the winter.