Implications of Computing: Part 2 - User Generated Content
October 20 2008 / by StuartDobson / In association with Future Blogger.net
Category: Culture Year: 2008 Rating: 9 Hot
Crossposted from Superconcepts.
User Generated Content (UGC) 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.
Comcast has been showing up rather frequently in the news as of late due to the issues they are having with users hogging large amounts of bandwidth.