Metcalfe’s Law is a hot topic of discussion right now, because of a paper in IEEE Spectrum that says:

Remarkably enough, though the quaint nostrums of the dot-com era are gone, Metcalfe’s Law remains, adding a touch of scientific respectability to a new wave of investment that is being contemplated, the Bubble 2.0, which appears to be inspired by the success of Google. That’s dangerous because, as we will demonstrate, the law is wrong. If there is to be a new, broadband-inspired period of telecommunications growth, it is essential that the mistakes of the 1990s not be reprised.

Metcalfe’s Law is Wrong Bob Briscoe, Andrew Odlyzko, and Benjamin Tilly, IEEE Spectrum, July 2006

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