Tag Archives: user generated content

Citizen journalism

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My last post dealt with user-generated content (UGC). Now, another favorite subject of mine – citizen journalism.

I do have a degree in Journalism so someone might consider me a professional, ergo, no citizen journalist. A recent article on the subject however defined citizen journalism like this: The intent of this participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires.

In terms of the forms it takes, J. D. Lasica defines the following types:

  1. Audience participation (such as user comments attached to news stories, personal blogs, photos or video footage captured from personal mobile cameras, or local news written by residents of a community
  2. Independent news and information Websites
  3. Full-fledged participatory news sites
  4. Collaborative and contributory media sites
  5. Other kinds of “thin media” (e.g. email newsletters)
  6. Personal broadcasting sites (video or audio)

Citizen journalism isn’t without its critics. In his 2005 review, Tom Grubisich went through ten citizen journalism sites and found them lacking in content and far from the ideal. Maybe the solution is to go all gonzo like Doctor Gonzo (Hunter Stockton Thompson).

Here’s a few selected articles for further reading:

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Unified theory of UGC

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I’ve been posting user-generated content on a regular basis here (be it Guy Kawasaki or Numa numa).

The guys at BusinessLogs have come up with something of a “theory” to explain the value the end-user gets by contributing to a site. The question that’s being asked is:

If you spend X units of time/creativity/effort do you get 3X units of pleasure/entertainment/utility in return, or do you only get 1.2X or .6X?

Here’s a snippet from the post.

…the most successful sites (based on user generated content) were the ones that gave the most bang for the buck, or, the most pleasure/utility back to the user. If I put in X units of effort and a site gives me back 2X units of entertainment, that’s good. If I put in X units of effort and get back 20X units of entertainment, that’s much better. On the flip side, if I put in X units of effort and get back 1/8th X units of entertainment, that means the X units of effort I initially put in were a complete waste of time, or, the site took my content and gave me squat in return.

I buy some of the utalitarian aspects of the theory. I’m not at all sure about the evaluations that they’ve made. Here’s the short list:

  • Myspace: for each unit of effort, you get 50(!) of pleasure
  • YouTube: a unit of effort gets you 20-40 units of pleasure
  • Squidoo: 8-10 units of effort only get you 15 units of pleasure

I bet Seth Godin is furious about this assessment (he’s the guy behind Squidoo!). My Diablo lens at Squidoo is only behind Google in terms of the traffic it sends to my Diablo 3 blog.

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Marissa Mayer on Google TV

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Marissa Mayer GoogleI’ve been meaning to post a photo of Marissa Mayer for a long time and now I have something of an occasion.

She recently addressed a crowd of angry TV execs: “We’re computer scientists,” she said. “We’re not brilliant storytellers or content creators.”

Wow. I bet she’ll regret it a few years down the line. Anyway, the point was that Google Video doesn’t compete with TV. In fact, the argument goes, online videos whet the viewer’s appetite for something more substantial!

I’d buy that. I’ll buy anything that Marissa says. Really!

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Love Machinima

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Machinima has been brought to a new level with all the emotes that Blizzard introduced in World of Warcraft. I recently posted a machinima that was done as a little musical.

Now comes my all-time favorite: Not just another Love Story
Warning: Graphic sex scenes!

My two favorite scenes are the one “in da club” (@5:30) and the death and resurrection scene (@12:00).

Talking about user-generated content: the music is well tied to the video and some of the camera angles are … amazing. Still can’t figure out how they did it (being a WoW veteran myself).

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Internet is for porn

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In case you’re in doubt, the Internet is for porn. Warning: Offensive lyrics!

What’s machinima? Machinima is “filmmaking within a real-time, 3D virtual environment, often using 3D video-game technologies.” This particular one is based on Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. Amazing!

P.S. If you’re not into toons, you can check out Steve Ballmer’s Developer video or the ever-popular Mento + Coke video.

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Google: Click-to-play video ads

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Google: Click-to-play video adsI almost gave up on Google. I thought they were going to tie the launch of their video ads to Google Video. It’s common sense that you show video ads on a video site.

This isn’t to say that video ads should only be shown on video sites but that’s been the norm so far. You go to iFilm and you see an ad before the clip. Revver also allows ads to be embedded in their video so that authors can get paid for the eyeballs they attract. Here’s what Inside AdWords had to say:

In the coming days, we will be adding click-to-play video ads to the line-up of text, Flash and image ad formats currently supported by the Google content network. At launch, video ads will be available to AdWords advertisers in the US, Canada and Japan – but we plan to roll them out to other regions shortly.

It seems Google’s video ads will be deployed within their existing AdSense network. So it will be up to the individual advertisers to change their AdSense codes in order to show video ads.

There are two key IF’s here:

  1. If Google manages to persuade AdWords users to come up with video ads. Creating a high-quality video creative requires a LOT more money (and talent) than writing two lines of text and a headline.
  2. If AdSense users will give videos a chance. There are many prejudices against putting intrusive video ads. If their CTR is poor to boot, there will be no reason in the world why anyone will splash them on the homepage. This in turn will result in advertisers being disappointed by their investment to produce a video ad.

Only time will tell if video ads catch on. Michael Arrington at TechCrunch is very sceptical. Personally, I’m gonna test-drive them once they show up in my AdSense account and then decide.

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