http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/feb2003/pi20030228_4861_pi044.htm

This article describes how certain companies were able to survive in a weak economy because of network effects. Due to network effects, companies with more users using their products are in a very strong position. This is because new users will tend to follow the leader in the industry. Also, current users […]

Power Law Distributions in Real and Virtual Worlds
The above link is an article that compares the pattern of size of global domains to the geographical distribution of the global population. One of the interesting points made in this article is that web pages are often closely linked to the economic and technological growth […]

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1463&CFID=8025570&CFTOKEN=89891895&jsessionid=a83076c1efdf21a1a202
 
The above article addresses the issue of how long social networking sites will stay popular. The issue is important because just like any other fashion or fad, they can come and go at unpredictable rates for not so obvious reasons. The article mentions Friendster and how it accrued to 20 million users in a relatively […]

www2.wiwi.hu-berlin.de/institute/wt1/papers/2002/cascades.pdf
The ultimate goal of a majority of college students, myself included, is to eventually land the perfect job. There are a number of ways to achieve such a goal and there are several factors that come into play. These factors include, but are not limited to: whom you know, what […]

As I looked for an article related to network effects, information cascade, and related topics, I searched for articles related to collective behavior, and found this interesting article by B. E. Aguirre, E.L. Quarantelli, and Jorge L. Mendoza. The link is located below:
http://www.udel.edu/DRC/Aguirre/publications/ag32.pdf
The article is entitled, “The Collective Behavior of Fads: The Characteristics, Effects, and […]

Oprah and The Secret
 
This article discusses the best-selling book The Secret. For those who do not know, The Secret, written by Australian talk show producer Rhonda Byrne, is a new self-help book that, in short, says putting out positive energy will bring positive things into your life. There have been many scathing criticisms […]

Future of Web Searching
The link will lead you to an interesting artucle on the future of web search engines.
It outlines the latest trends that Search engines are doing to improve their engines, and generate more user traffic (So that they can make more money with advertising)
Three main categories that are improving are:
- […]

Informational Cascades in IT Adoption
Xiaotong Li, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama, writes about herd behavior in IT adoption and the decision making process involved. With new technologies continually emerging, businesses place great pressure on IT managers to adopt the latest and greatest to further streamline operations. IT managers often are in the […]

FON is a company that seeks to exploit network effects to supply free wireless across the globe. The working premise is that people often have wireless internet access at home, usually from a wireline internet service provider (e.g. cable or DSL). However, when away from home, people often have to pay to go online (e.g. […]

The success of the iPod is a result of information being passed through a network and some point, around the 3rd generation iPod the tipping point occurred and the iPod fad spread like wild fire. Other products with […]