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New Fundamental Law of Network Economics
intersys writes "A new fundamental law of economics has been formulated by Rod Beckstrom, former Director of the National Cyber Security Center. In Words: The value of a network equals the net value added to each user's transactions (PDF) conducted through that network, valued from the perspective of each user, and summed for all. It answers the decades-old question of 'how valuable is a network.' It is granular and transactions-based, and can be used to value any network: social, electronic, support groups, and even the Internet as a whole. This new model or law values the network by looking from the edge of the network at all of the transactions conducted and the value added to each. One way to contemplate the value the network adds to each transaction is to imagine the network being shut off and what the additional transactions' costs or loss would be. Beckstrom's Law replaces Metcalfe's law, Reed's law, and other concepts which proposed that the value of a network was based purely on the size of the network (and in the case of Metcalfe's law, one other variable)."
... and what exactly was the value conquering a 10 years old Open Source project like TWiki using a VC funded company, acquiring the trademark and then locking out all of its contributors? Because that's what Rod did 2008. I tell you: it only had value for a single node/company while other stakeholders were trampled under their feet. Sour grapes? No, live goes on on the Foswiki fork. Let's see 2009.