User+Generated+Content

=   = **__User Generated Content__**

User generated content is any kind of personally created information that is put on websites such as a video on Youtube, a tweet on Twitter, or a blog post on any blogging website.

//PDF about User Generated Content.// []

User generated content (UGC) is different than a website designed by someone or a company that offers things produced by a professional. UGC is amateur created. Over the past few years, UGC has become immensely popular. A few of the most visited websites on the web today are user generated. Web pages like blogs can put up ads from a company on their blog/page and get a percentage of a profit from that company just for having their ad there for people to see. Other websites such as Wikipedia are non profit. YouTube has become infamous for adding 15-30 second ads before a popular video someone wants to watch. But, not all UGC content on Youtube is accepted because it may break the terms of a copyright law. "Comedy Central", for example, asked YouTube to stop allowing clips from "The Daily Show" and the "Colbert Report." 1

A problem with UGC is that it can be very inaccurate and not even fit with the subject at all. Usually books and magazine articles are more reliable. Double checking an entry online with a written source could help improve the credibility of something online.

"More than 82 million people in the US created content online during 2008, a number expected to grow to nearly 115 million by 2013 according to numbers released by eMarketer." 2



Some social media sites, even though their content is mostly or completely UGC, are being targeted under anti-piracy legislation bills from Congress. They could be "punished" for having a video or something posted on their site. The lawmakers introducing the bills state that they are going after "'the worst of the worst' sites that are profiting off of pirated materials.' And that they are not going after sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. But they might get caught up in the bills anyway. With websites like YouTube, a person can post a video and below the video they sometimes post a link to where you can download the song or video illegally on another site. So YouTube could fall under the sweep of legislation. The people who use these sites will not be effected. But the companies who do not more carefully police the users of the site will be punished. The bill is targeting foreign sites, but, again, U.S. sites could be dragged into it. In the end, the sites will just have to take down anything posted that goes against copyright infringement laws. 3

This is a graph of China's web content. UGC has slightly surpassed professional content

Here is another graph depicting the online activity of China's internet usage.

The problem with UGC though is that it sometimes provides faulty or unreliable information. Google has introduced a site, Knol, a Wikipedia-like website hosted by "'authoritative' sources that share ad revenue." Wikipedia has come under scrutiny for having wrong or completely false information on wikis about certain things. If you are in any kind of school, you are most likely told not to use Wikipedia to find information on a topic. Teachers have come to realize that there might be faulty information on there. Co-founder of BigThink.com, Victoria Brown, said "We think there's a demand for a nook of cyberspace where depth of knowledge and expertise reign." Mahalo has a "Mahalo top 7" feature which let's the user pick between 7 big-named sites when they search for something instead of looking through millions of links provided by a Google search.

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[1] [Tricia Ellis-Christensen, "What Is User Generated Content?", Wisegeek.com, available from [], accessed 7 November 2011.]

[2] [Adam Ostrow, "82 million User-Generated Content Creators and Counting", mashable.com, available from [], accessed 7 November 2011.]

[3] [ Judson Burgur, "Anti-Piracy Legislation Targets Copyrights, While Critics Say It's a Trap to Hurt Facebook, YouTube", Foxnews.com, available from [| http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/02/proposals-to-target-online-piracy-trigger-alarm-from-tech-industry/], accessed 6 November 2011.]