Getting on with my life and thinking about things.
Reposted from a comment I left on John's "Walkabout in the UK" blog:
The thing about user-generated-content is that it relies on the user to generate the content for the company making the business. The next stage in the business model is for the company (google/blogger, google/youtube, or whoever) to pay a share of the advertising revenue that the user generates for the host. Below a certain number of click-throughs, the money is used to pay for the hosting (and 'losses' on non-profitable sites). YouTube then becomes the media version of eBay.
And then there is the issue of copyright, libel and slander to take into account.
Get rid of the spammers and virus-peddlers, and YouTube could use the bandwidth freed up on the Net to increase the resolution/quality of their hosted clips. Now, that's a radical thought: reclaim the Net!
I haven't updated my personal website in ages, and took off the email links as it was 'farmed' by scumspammers. This blog is an experiment for me, and expect it (and the YouTubing) to go the same way. If I can pull some new concepts out of the hat, then great. Push the boundaries. I don't do shark jumping, and walk away from things before that (I'm not a completer/finisher).
People who work in journalism as a hobby are blogging, I don't think it makes everyone who blogs a journalist. Once bloggers, etc get into reviewing products then there is the professionalism and (probably) legal aspect.
It's not as if there'll be a t-shirt saying "I'd rather be blogging"?
I see the 'new media' going the same way as websites. Lots of people used to build their own. Not many people do that now. As the existing media channels converge on the Internet as the delivery medium of choice, so the amateur productions we see just now will be subsumed by worldwide mass - and I do mean mass - media channels. (Aside: so who exactly will pay the UK govt for the current analogue channels they'll be selling off?) Want to watch "Lost", just log in to your tv subscription channel. Who knows, YouTube may be one of these, but so will archives of old media (tv, films, radio).
I have a feeling that people are turning off from the existing media because they are tired of the same old tat. The arguments put forward that having 4 TV channels in the UK would dilute the viewing figures have come true, and we have more than 4 channels now. I pay for BBC4, and cannot receive it unless I pay for a new aerial. Guess what: I just don't watch it.
If the comment about the falling figures of 'lads' mags is true, then maybe the tipping point is the growing number of 'emo' kids. Will they be the saviour of the human race? It'll be interesting to see the chavs and chavettes running scared in front of a crowd of emo's, who know what they want and how to get it, and will have no problems pushing drunken wasters out of the way to get it. Go on, speak to an emo, you know you want to.
(I'm in your Web 2.0 playing with your mindz)
1 comments:
(Blimey this threads going to run and run at this rate)
As one of the longer term IT industry stalwarts I've learnt the end result, and time to produce v overall cost is what counts, not the wizardy of the tools used to develop it. Yes we now use 'manufactured' websites, but the same could be said of word processors, databases etc that we had to "develop" ourselves in the past. And some still do.
For me the medium is a means of delivery, so I'm not so sure I'd agree that the blog/pcast phenomena will go away so quickly. People still keep diaries; For many this is an on-line version with more of an impetus to keep doing it past the end of January because of 3rd feedback.
Now if it remains interesting and relevant to others it will be read and responded to. Otherwise it ends up like reality TV (only fit for those too limited in their outlook to get a life of their own?)Niche TV is here now - check out the weekly viewers figures for the smaller channels. Less than a small sized radio station. No wonder the advertisers are moving their expenditure around these days.
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