A network of networks

 

I have been reading Aral's The Hype Machine. The author was explaining the network effect and expanded my understanding of what the phrase means. Within the context of explaining how Facebook overtook MySpace, Aral offered the explanation the while Facebook has some technological advantages it was really that users came to the Facebook as groups already consisting of users who knew each other. Hence, Facebook was initially launched as a group of groups (colleges). This provided immediate contacts and interaction allowing the connection with others to emerge from this base.

I have struggled trying to invest my own attention and content in new social media sites (WT:Social, MeWe). I attributed this struggle to my original understanding of the network effect - a site has value that is a function of the number of users. My more nuanced insight has implications for how this might be changed. For example, it might make sense for educators interested in the collaborations possible in a social media site first join with colleagues from the same school. From this base, the biology teachers, the elementary teachers, etc. might branch out to make new connections. I might ask the students in a class to use a given social media site for the duration of my course and then see who would hang on afterward.