It is worth pointing out that this article was written during the dot com hysteria, and there has never been any quantitative evidence for it. Similarly data supporting Metcalfe's Law is hard to come by.
Of course I'm biased. I'm one of the co-authors of http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/metcalfes-law-is... which, instead of postulating that Metcalfe's Law is pessimistic, says that it is far too optimistic. (Of course we had multiple lines of reasoning for that conclusion, several of which were based on concrete economic data.)
Of course I'm biased. I'm one of the co-authors of http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/networks/metcalfes-law-is... which, instead of postulating that Metcalfe's Law is pessimistic, says that it is far too optimistic. (Of course we had multiple lines of reasoning for that conclusion, several of which were based on concrete economic data.)