> [!abstract] >Reed's law is the assertion of [American computer scientist] David P. Reed that the utility of large networks, particularly social networks, can scale exponentially with the size of the network (Wikipedia, 2024). > [!quote] > Even Metcalfe's law understates the value created by a group-forming network (GFN) as it grows. Let's say you have a GFN with *n* members. If you add up all the potential two-person groups, three-person groups, and so on that those members could form, the number of possible groups equals 2^n. So the value of a GFN increases exponentially, in proportion to 2^n. I call that Reed's Law. And its implications are profound ([[Reed, 2001]]). >[!related] >- **North** (upstream): [[Network theory]] (the study of how nodes and connections generate value and structure) >- **West** (similar): [[Metcalfe's law]] >- **East** (different): [[Sarnoff’s Law]] >- **South** (downstream): [[Group-forming networks]] (GFNs — the specific type of networks, like online communities, where Reed’s exponential scaling applies)