User Distributed Content NOT User Generated Content

I was thinking this morning on my way to the office that all this buzz about this “user generated content” is not going in the right direction.

We (users) did not wait for web2.0 or even internet to generate content. We always had notepads to write our thoughts, cameras to take pictures, instruments to make music, microphone to sing, …

It is true that computers helped us produced better and faster content. But the production need and process has always been there. And the revolution for me is not here.

The true novelty is the capacity to distribute and share it in a compelling powerful way. By the the content is not always generated. Most videos in Youtube are not self produced but just uploaded, most bookmarks in Delicious are not self produced but indexed. Pictures in Flickr would have been shot in any case. The only thing i could argue about are blogs (at least in my case) where content would not have existed if the plateform was not there.

In a word, all this content which is not always generated/produced/created by the user is ALWAYS distributed and structured by the users. and the internet is the only channel to enable that.

User distributed content is the revolution.

Comments

[blundstone]

hey ouriel, as often as i agree with your opinions and views, but this is something where i have to disagree.

distribution of content through users has always been there since the www exists. well, the tools and methods got better, but that's about it.

participation and contributing was the original intention of tim berners lee when inventing the www, and now developers and companies have recognized that by providing the right tools to contribute and participate. the revolution of contribution began with the internet access providers offering broadband, thus giving the user a comfortable capability to contribute and share their content with the world. imagine youtube, flickr, myspace or else with a 56k modem. platforms that users contribute to, even if they don't produce the content.

[ouriel]

i agree with you. The distribution was always there. But the infrastructure and broadband made it compelling only recently. What i meant is that content was already virtually existing. the distribution is the new power.

[David]

Ouriel, i partly agree. I agree in the sense that much has to do about distribution, categorization and query of content. However, I think that modern tools like Youtube, flickr, etc... are enormous creativity boosting media. Youtube encourages people to record things like them playing music, explaining their life, how to draw a flower etc... so web2.0 is both the stimulator of creativity and the distribution channel.

[Christian Jegourel]

I Ouriel. I agree with you for a short period. For the moment UGC is a new potential for users and we find a lot things including copy. But after a discovery time, the market could be shared in different segments. User’s contents could be embedded in professional one to provide to the consumer hybrid webzine and services. User will learn how to really create there own picture, video and produce full composite contents. Of course a part of users will continue to try to broadcast ugly contents like some tags on our wall. But I believe on citizen production. It depends deeply to the imitative in this field to provide to the users the right tools and sites to help them. That’s I prepare wy YouVox.
Sorry for my English, it’s not my native language

[ouriel]

I agree. With the time consumer will produce more. But for now they distribute/structure more than they create.