Social Web 3.0

Technology is to the point where the average person can produce high quality content for very little money. On top of that, websites are constantly opening up for people to share this content; For video, there's YouTube and Vimeo, for audio there is MySpace and purevolume1, and for text there are too many ways to publish online for me to count. Unfortunately just having an outlet doesn't guarantee quality.

Well, what about all that crap?

Anyone who has spent a day online could probably show a lot of really good content that they had seen that day, but the majority of it would be crap. I'm not going to mince words on this subject; most of the content on the internet is terrible. The real question is whether this matters or not. Here's a few ideas about why this may not matter:

Terrible content doesn't get word-of-mouth— Most of the good content I see online has been recommended to me by someone else. I have friends that tell me, "You have to see this!" and follow all sorts of sites that do the same for all their followers. Now, word-of-mouth doesn't guarantee that I'm being sent to something I'll enjoy, but certainly someone enjoyed it enough to recommend it, meaning there is probably another who will enjoy it too.

Content sharing websites like YouTube and purevolume have ways of highlighting the best content— It's hard to find a site hosting content that doesn't have some way of rating the content on it. On both YouTube and purevolume, the entire front page is dedicated to content that has been visited the most or has gained the most peer recommendation, along with paid content promotion. This is basically the official sort of word-of-mouth.

Content from traditional sources isn't guaranteed to be good— How many TV shows are simply terrible, how many movies are near unwatchable, and how much music just sucks? The assumption is that traditional content publishers have a process of review to make sure that what they put out is good, but that assumption doesn't ring true when you take a look at the content. The music industry is especially in a sorry state—I can't recommend enough that you watch the documentary Before the Music Dies.2 The music industry seldom develops artists these days, opting to record what's hot now and try to fix it's deficiencies after the fact digitally. I suppose that's a bad criticism of developing good content, since somebody must listen to all that dime-a-dozen pop music, however it is still a good argument about how poorly the industry develops content. Keep in mind that someone like Ray Charles might not make it today, just because he's blind. Led Zeppelin got it's name from being told their band would go down like a "lead zeppelin." Just like the Mythbusters3, however, we all found out a lead zeppelin can fly.

Skip past this paragraph if you don't want to hear about producing your own music

Because I am a musician, you get to sit through my opinions on "user generated content" in terms of music. Alright, you don't have to sit through it, but you might learn something. When (or lately "if") I release an album, I will release it online on my own web site. With a little effort, making a professional recording isn't hard. You can buy mixers with computer interfaces which you can plug all your instruments and microphones into to record on your computer. Apple ships GarageBand to record with all it's computers, free. My own setup includes an 8 channel mixer and two professional microphones with cables and stands, all for around $500. My point here is that recording your own quality audio is very possible. The benefit is if I release my own album, I can circumvent the recording industries fears and misconceptions about audio in the digital age. I could—and would—release an album supported by donations. I'd have the ability to give people the music online—for free—and ask for people to donate if they'd like for me to continue recording. That way, if my album sucks and no one enjoyed it, I'll know that I either need to work to do better or stop altogether.

Overall, I don't think you can really put rules and limitations on user generated content, just based on it's quality. You can't stop people from making terrible content, it will happen anyways. The beauty of it is the amazing content that comes through too.