User Generated Content - Empowering Everyone

User Generated Content is increasing exponentially, as is the ease of creating and hosting home made material.

To get an idea of what this might mean for us in the future, we've only got to look at the best example of UGC around today: YouTube.

Blogging was great, but there appears to be far more power in a video than a long winded piece of text. Home made internet radio is pretty popular, but sadly not to the extent it could be. For this I blame the lack of microphones as standard on modern PCs. YouTube has allowed people to present themselves and their opinions in a way far more effective than has ever been seen before.

Who knows how this could evolve. Anyone can create relatively high production values given the right software. As it becomes easier to edit, present, manipulate, and even research content, more and more possibilities open themselves up to amateur creators. Professionally created material that amateurs could use in their own content, such as blue screen backgrounds, soundtracks, or special effects, could become a respectable market in a few years.

Perhaps User Created interactive experiences could have even more impact. Tools could be written allowing radical and user friendly customisation of game engines. Spore has already started to embark on this fascinating path.

What about professionals? The internet allows collaboration of talents, and is slowly becoming more and more profitable to content creators. Could it be possible that in the future creative entertainment is no longer created by broadcast companies, but collaborating grass roots teams, working to create and profit from their labours of love? Or will professional teams always have an edge?

Although quality content is often lacking from User Generated Content, it occasionally allows unlikely stars to emerge. Talent will always be well received, and as the profitability of UGC increases, as will the desire to improve the quality.

The key to the success of UGC systems is, without doubt, user-friendliness. The success of Facebook and the Nintendo Wii are testament to this. Creating Flash animations, or machinima in Second life, are not things everyone can do, but make an easy to use program for creating animations and people will be all over it – providing it's any good. There is definitely a need for more of this so I can see it improving immensely over the next few years, providing many opportunities.


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