Metcalfe’s Law, it states:

“The value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system. First formulated by Robert Metcalfe in regard to Ethernet, Metcalfe’s law explains many of the network effects of communication technologies and networks such as the Internet and World Wide Web.”

-Wikipedia article for “Metcalfe’s Law”

If you think about it, the possibilities for what you could apply this same basic generic concept is endless.

Why Businesses Need To Be Acting On This Growing Trend Most Business owners will agr

Naturally, with it being the end of the year, I have been spending some time reflecting on the previous year in order to get idea of where I want the business to go in 2007. As I thought about 2006 a couple of significant standouts came to mind.

The first example that came to mind was MySpace. In 2006 it hit its peak (at least in popularity) by becoming one of the most visited websites on the Internet. I’d say that a site created by one guy which now has traffic levels comparable to MSN and Yahoo is doing something right. And apparently News Corp. thought the same because it purchased MySpace for a few billion dollars.

Or what about the huge the explosive growth and eventual acquisition of YouTube. It went from a pretty cool website to a $1.6 Billion part of the Google machine.

Wouldn’t you like your business to have the same kind of results in 2007 that these businesses experienced in 2006? I know I would. That got me thinking and the one thing that I realized about all these success stories of the past year is that they all seemed to grow exponentially.

So I asked myself, “What caused these businesses to grow so fast?” and without a huge multi-million dollar advertising budget behind them. They did it with a business model and methodolgy that allows its users to help add to and grow the content and community of their business.

The popular name that most have adopted for this model and methodology is “Web 2.0″. And for the purposes of this article, I’m going to stick with that name.

What is Web 2.0? Here are the basic characteristics of a Web 2.0 application or website:

• “Network as platform” — delivering (and allowing users to use) applications entirely through a browser.
• Users owning the data on the site and exercising control over that data.
• An architecture of participation and democracy that encourages users to add value to the application as they use it.
• A rich, interactive, user-friendly interface based on Ajax or similar frameworks.
• Some social-networking aspects.

All of these characteristics are there to allow users to easily contribute to the overall community.

Web 2.0 is not the first example of this type of system thriving in its environment. Take the growth of cell phone networks. They have the same root principals in that they depend on the network to grow(user base) in order for the value of the overall network to increase. To this day, you still see Verizon Wireless commercials advertising that they have the “best” network because they have the largest network. They show it by having a huge mass of people standing there as your “network”.

This is called Metcalfe’s Law, it states:

“The value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system. First formulated by Robert Metcalfe in regard to Ethernet, Metcalfe’s law explains many of the network effects of communication technologies and networks such as the Internet and World Wide Web.”

-Wikipedia article for “Metcalfe’s Law”

If you think about it, the possibilities for what you could apply this same basic generic concept is endless.

Why Businesses Need To Be Acting On This Growing Trend Most Business owners will agre

rowth and eventual acquisition of YouTube. It went from a pretty cool website to a $1.6 Billion part of the Google machine.

Wouldn’t you like your business to have the same kind of results in 2007 that these businesses experienced in 2006? I know I would. That got me thinking and the one thing that I realized about all these success stories of the past year is that they all seemed to grow exponentially.

So I asked myself, “What caused these businesses to grow so fast?” and without a huge multi-million dollar advertising budget behind them. They did it with a business model and methodolgy that allows its users to help add to and grow the content and community of their business.

The popular name that most have adopted for this model and methodology is “Web 2.0″. And for the purposes of this article, I’m going to stick with that name.

What is Web 2.0? Here are the basic characteristics of a Web 2.0 application or website:

• “Network as platform” — delivering (and allowing users to use) applications entirely through a browser.
• Users owning the data on the site and exercising control over that data.
• An architecture of participation and democracy that encourages users to add value to the application as they use it.
• A rich, interactive, user-friendly interface based on Ajax or similar frameworks.
• Some social-networking aspects.

All of these characteristics are there to allow users to easily contribute to the overall community.

Web 2.0 is not the first example of this type of system thriving in its environment. Take the growth of cell phone networks. They have the same root principals in that they depend on the network to grow(user base) in order for the value of the overall network to increase. To this day, you still see Verizon Wireless commercials advertising that they have the “best” network because they have the largest network. They show it by having a huge mass of people standing there as your “network”.

This is called Metcalfe’s Law, it states:

“The value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system. First formulated by Robert Metcalfe in regard to Ethernet, Metcalfe’s law explains many of the network effects of communication technologies and networks such as the Internet and World Wide Web.”

-Wikipedia article for “Metcalfe’s Law”

If you think about it, the possibilities for what you could apply this same basic generic concept is endless.

Why Businesses Need To Be Acting On This Growing Trend Most Business owners will agr

y of their business.

The popular name that most have adopted for this model and methodology is “Web 2.0″. And for the purposes of this article, I’m going to stick with that name.

What is Web 2.0? Here are the basic characteristics of a Web 2.0 application or website:

• “Network as platform” — delivering (and allowing users to use) applications entirely through a browser.
• Users owning the data on the site and exercising control over that data.
• An architecture of participation and democracy that encourages users to add value to the application as they use it.
• A rich, interactive, user-friendly interface based on Ajax or similar frameworks.
• Some social-networking aspects.

All of these characteristics are there to allow users to easily contribute to the overall community.

Web 2.0 is not the first example of this type of system thriving in its environment. Take the growth of cell phone networks. They have the same root principals in that they depend on the network to grow(user base) in order for the value of the overall network to increase. To this day, you still see Verizon Wireless commercials advertising that they have the “best” network because they have the largest network. They show it by having a huge mass of people standing there as your “network”.

This is called Metcalfe’s Law, it states:

“The value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system. First formulated by Robert Metcalfe in regard to Ethernet, Metcalfe’s law explains many of the network effects of communication technologies and networks such as the Internet and World Wide Web.”

-Wikipedia article for “Metcalfe’s Law”

If you think about it, the possibilities for what you could apply this same basic generic concept is endless.

Why Businesses Need To Be Acting On This Growing Trend Most Business owners will agr

orks.

Some social-networking aspects.

All of these characteristics are there to allow users to easily contribute to the overall community.

Web 2.0 is not the first example of this type of system thriving in its environment. Take the growth of cell phone networks. They have the same root principals in that they depend on the network to grow(user base) in order for the value of the overall network to increase. To this day, you still see Verizon Wireless commercials advertising that they have the “best” network because they have the largest network. They show it by having a huge mass of people standing there as your “network”.

This is called Metcalfe’s Law, it states:

“The value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system. First formulated by Robert Metcalfe in regard to Ethernet, Metcalfe’s law explains many of the network effects of communication technologies and networks such as the Internet and World Wide Web.”

-Wikipedia article for “Metcalfe’s Law”

If you think about it, the possibilities for what you could apply this same basic generic concept is endless.

Why Businesses Need To Be Acting On This Growing Trend Most Business owners will agr

Metcalfe’s Law, it states:

“The value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system. First formulated by Robert Metcalfe in regard to Ethernet, Metcalfe’s law explains many of the network effects of communication technologies and networks such as the Internet and World Wide Web.”

-Wikipedia article for “Metcalfe’s Law”

If you think about it, the possibilities for what you could apply this same basic generic concept is endless.

Why Businesses Need To Be Acting On This Growing Trend Most Business owners will agree that “content is king”. So if content is king, why not utilize your most powerful resource for new content… your users.

Now keep in mind, when I refer to “content” I’m merely talking about the equity that makes your product, service, or website valuable to users. This could be as simple as written content for your blog or on YouTube it is a larger variety of videos for visitors to search, find and watch.

Businesses may not know it yet but they are going to want all of their products and services to either utilize Web 2.0 characteristics directly or have the marketing of their products and services taking advantage of them.

Of course, with any new product or service, you are going to have to get it out there to get it initially exposed. But the great thing about this type of model is that once you get the momentum started, the users help you expose the product to more users while they are helping you increase the content of your product. It is an exponential type of growth for the popularity of the product as well as the quality of the product.

This is what you want as a Business. Would you rather be responsible for adding each and every user yourself or create some initial momentum and ride that wave? You want this type of “self growing” or viral products and services that gain momentum at a rate that is proportional to the amount of users.

Put all of these things together and you get the best type of business model which is one that is viral and can grow exponentially.