Networked Information resources Long tail

General Patterns of Use

Power laws in informetrics Zipf’s law Bradford’s law Lotka’s law of author productivity Web hub

Hits are rare Number that circulate regularly are very few

Three conditions for powerlaws 1. Variety 2. Inequality 3. Network effects such as word of mouth and reputation, which tend to amplify differences in quality

The long tail

Three forces of the long tail Democratize production Democratize distribution Connect supply and demand Reduce search cost, increase market efficiency

Democratize production Layperson participation in the production of culture (e.g. blog, Wiki, podcast, citizen journalism, youtube) Social network: community-based, collaborative participation

Social aspects of participatory network The gift economy Altruistic instinct? The reputation economy Exposure culture Peer recognition Vibrant and diverse sub-cultures Niches

Niche market In ecology: a species’ position and use of resources within its environment A niche market: a focused, targetable portion of a market sector not addressed by mainstream providers

Fragmentation ‘Each individual listeners, viewers, or reader is, and has always been a unique mix of generic interests and specific interests. Although many of these individuals might share some generic interests, such as the weather, most, if not all of them, have very different specific interests.’

Niches and sub-cultures ‘The result is that more and more individuals, who had been using only the (generic) mass medium because that’s all they had, have gravitated to these specialty publications, channels, or websites rather than continue to use only mass medium publications, channels or websites.’