Comments on: Should advertisers stay clear of unpredictable, user-generated content? http://shift6.net/2008/03/12/should-advertisers-stay-clear-of-unpredictable-user-generated-content/ Youth, mobility and media Sat, 22 Nov 2008 13:09:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Alison Black http://shift6.net/2008/03/12/should-advertisers-stay-clear-of-unpredictable-user-generated-content/#comment-159 Alison Black Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:11:46 +0000 http://shift6.net/2008/03/12/should-advertisers-stay-clear-of-unpredictable-user-generated-content/#comment-159 Many thanks for your comments, Bertil. Yes, I acknowledge I was tough on Improveverywhere, but my point is that they risk losing their inclusiveness if they continue in the food court direction. (It was a calculated risk for the particular project, as they point out.) More generally if web users followed the money and were persuaded that high production values and carefully vetted content were the *only* way to go, much of what is lively and attractive on the web would be lost. Having said this I'm still interested to see how Knol develops. ;-) Many thanks for your comments, Bertil. Yes, I acknowledge I was tough on Improveverywhere, but my point is that they risk losing their inclusiveness if they continue in the food court direction. (It was a calculated risk for the particular project, as they point out.)
More generally if web users followed the money and were persuaded that high production values and carefully vetted content were the *only* way to go, much of what is lively and attractive on the web would be lost.
Having said this I’m still interested to see how Knol develops. ;-)

]]> By: Bertil Hatt http://shift6.net/2008/03/12/should-advertisers-stay-clear-of-unpredictable-user-generated-content/#comment-157 Bertil Hatt Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:42:21 +0000 http://shift6.net/2008/03/12/should-advertisers-stay-clear-of-unpredictable-user-generated-content/#comment-157 I'm not sure “advertising” is the way to monetise attention on such platform. The value in UGC is to involve people to show them how they can do good; that is close to fishing trips, cooking lessons, that are generally far more expensive then the fishes, of the food cooked — because it is not what adds value. Advertising, i.e. showing how a professionally edited content can be well-brushed, there is missing the point: would you sell frozen fish of ready-made food to people attending a fishing expedition of a cooking class? No: what has value is the experience they have, hence the tools to do so: fishing rods, cooking utensils. Advertisers don't want to be next to crappy video if they are trying to leverage the content of the video rather then what empowers the users; the best example of a successful relation would be a hard-drive manufacturer who sponsored a well-known video-geek. Coke, perfume of cars, the dream-selling companies would be out of focus there. Wikipedia is not crapier of better then any other encyclopaedia: it works differently, and I wouldn't look for new words, heraldry or news in there. To answer basic questions like “WTF is that . . . ?”, it's ideal. ImprovEverywhere is about having people think about conventions, expectation in public — like a provocative social science teacher would, actually — and making a musical comedy seams a relevant way to say: you can make things really beautiful. I'm sorry that I demand people to sing properly if they want to do it in public, and singing properly demands years of experience and regular training — but what they did made sense to me, as a goal more then the usual exercise. I’m not sure “advertising” is the way to monetise attention on such platform. The value in UGC is to involve people to show them how they can do good; that is close to fishing trips, cooking lessons, that are generally far more expensive then the fishes, of the food cooked — because it is not what adds value. Advertising, i.e. showing how a professionally edited content can be well-brushed, there is missing the point: would you sell frozen fish of ready-made food to people attending a fishing expedition of a cooking class? No: what has value is the experience they have, hence the tools to do so: fishing rods, cooking utensils.
Advertisers don’t want to be next to crappy video if they are trying to leverage the content of the video rather then what empowers the users; the best example of a successful relation would be a hard-drive manufacturer who sponsored a well-known video-geek. Coke, perfume of cars, the dream-selling companies would be out of focus there.

Wikipedia is not crapier of better then any other encyclopaedia: it works differently, and I wouldn’t look for new words, heraldry or news in there. To answer basic questions like “WTF is that . . . ?”, it’s ideal. ImprovEverywhere is about having people think about conventions, expectation in public — like a provocative social science teacher would, actually — and making a musical comedy seams a relevant way to say: you can make things really beautiful. I’m sorry that I demand people to sing properly if they want to do it in public, and singing properly demands years of experience and regular training — but what they did made sense to me, as a goal more then the usual exercise.

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