Globe & Mail: Content generators transforming more than just the Web

Here's a light summary of the year that was, in social networking.


'User-generated content" isn't the most poetic phrase. In fact, it's exactly the opposite: a term that sounds like it came from an academic research paper, or some dystopian science fiction novel, describing legions of faceless "users" churning out widgets of "content" in a factory somewhere.

Poetic or not, the phenomenon (which some call "crowdsourcing" or "social media") has captured the imagination of many in the industry over the past year. In fact, it has become so popular that Time magazine made "You" its Person of the Year, that is, the collective "you" who are creating content on YouTube, Flickr and elsewhere.

Some critics have described Time's choice as a cop-out, a way of avoiding a difficult choice for its cover subject, but there's no question that Google's purchase of YouTube for $1.6-billion (U.S.) -- and to a lesser extent News Corp.'s acquisition of MySpace for $580-million -- turned a spotlight on all the "content" being created by users of those and other Web-based social networking services.

YouTube's phenomenal growth has effectively disrupted the TV industry, forcing television networks to reconsider how they are dealing with the Internet. NBC created a separate division called NBBC -- the National Broadband Broadcasting Co. -- to distribute its content on the Web, and it and several other major U.S. networks are now streaming some of their leading shows over the Internet.

Comcast, one of the largest U.S. cable networks, said this week that it plans to create a reality show based on "user-generated" video. The company is soliciting video clips from the public, and says it will choose one idea that will go into professional development to become a new TV series.

Meanwhile, Amanda Congdon, the former host of a popular Web video blog called Rocketboom, recently signed a deal with ABC News to contribute video reports. And a 20-year-old YouTube user nicknamed Brookers (aka Brooke Brodack of Massachusetts) became so popular for the comedy routines she filmed with a webcam that earlier this year she was signed to a TV and Web development deal by NBC late-night show host Carson Daly.

Comedian Dane Cook became so popular, in part because of his MySpace page, that he got a TV special and a movie deal. Two friends who produced their own animated short films and distributed them on the Web through a site called JibJab.com were courted by Hollywood agents and signed a deal with Verizon in October to create mobile shorts. Another duo who filmed themselves playing around with Mentos and Diet Coke were hired by the beverage giant to create a Web contest.

There are several Web services that will take your uploaded content and pay you based on the number of views your clip receives (since traffic equals page views, which means advertising revenue). Revver will pay you a percentage of the ad revenue, while Brightcove pays either based on ad revenue or on a fee-to-download basis.

And it's not just television. User-produced content is disrupting other media as well. Several magazines -- including Teen People and FHM's U.S. edition -- have shut down in part because the Web has eaten into their target market. And MySpace said this week that it has signed a deal with the publishers of U.K.-based Marmalade magazine, in which it will take over one issue and fill it with user-generated content from the site.

In a recent cover story on the "crowdsourcing" phenomenon, Wired magazine profiled Calgary-based iStockphoto, a user-submitted photo site that was acquired in February by Getty Images for $50-million. Photographers submit their shots to iStockphoto and sell them for use by websites or magazines, and the service recently added the ability to handle user-generated video clips as well.

Lise Gagné, a Montreal photographer, started submitting photos to iStockphoto several years ago as a hobby, and now makes her living taking shots that are sold on the website, as well as checking and approving other people's photos (for which she is paid). In the not-too-distant future, a "content generator" like Ms. Gagné may seem less like a strange new Web-based creature and more like the norm.

Read Ingram 2.0 (Matthew Ingram) every Monday on globetechnology.com

Podcasts: (some) People are Starting to Listen

(click chart to enlarge)

According to an interesting survey by Pew Internet & American Life Project, an August benchmark of 12% of Internet users are downloading and listening/viewing podcasts, up from 7% in Q1 2006.

I've been downloading podcasts for exactly a year now, and the content really hasn't exploded. There have been a few highlights: there was the initial series of the Ricky Gervais Podcast where we came to chortle at the right-angled views of life from 'Carl', and for us musician/studio engineering enthusiasts the Barenaked Ladies series was extremely engaging (until this one just fell of the map with no conclusion whatsoever.) The CBC has done a surprisingly excellent job of moving much of its radio show content to the pod. And I think right now the Bill Maher series is incredible (granted it's just a lift from his HBO show.) However, for all its potential, there is very little sustained audio podcast content, and even less on the video side.

It's been an interesting year observing how this new age 'talking stick' could be utilized. Monetization of the content certainly hasn't happened. There have been spurts of inspiration, but the pick up on the listening numbers in this chart is probably due to the massive increase in iPod sales over the year, not in penetration. I'm willing to bet at this point that podcasts will never become mainstream devices for companies, broadcasters, organizations, or individuals to move content to the masses.

(I was tipped to this survey from a blog that Dave Forde's started up: Profectio--bringing together Canada's Connected Community Dave used to be the GM of AIMS CANADA)