Here Comes Everybody Chapter 4

There is a useful definition on page 83: "User-generated content is a group phenomenon, and an amateur one.  When people talk bout user-generated content, they are describing the ways that users create and share media with one another, with no professionals anywhere in sight."

I had not thought about the target audience discussed on page 85, but Shirkey is correct.  Much of the blogging and posting done on the internet, is only intended for a few friends.  I wonder if the act of chatting with a friend could be changed by introducing a financial incentive, through some of the new models of advertising being pursued by companies like Google (ads to "monetize" small-audience blogs) and FaceBook (ads that tell you what products your "friends" are followers or fans of, as a form of personal endorsement).

On page 87, Shirkey mentions that the line between one-way broadcasting, and one-on-one communication tools were clear in the past.  "Someone writing you a letter might say 'I love you', and someone on TV might say 'I love you', but you would have no trouble understanding which of those messages was really addressed to you."  I wonder if social advertising on Facebook could be one of the ways those lines get blurred further?

I was bored by the part about fame.  I don't care that Oprah can't answer all her e-mail.

Over on page 105:

Life teaches us that motivations other than getting paid aren't enough to add up to serious work.  And now we have to unlearn that lesson, because it is less true with each passing year.  People now have access to a myriad of tools that let them share writing images, video -- any form of expressive content in fact -- and use that sharing as an anchor for community and cooperation.

But does this apply primarily to things that can be transmitted digitally?  Page 107:

All businesses are media businesses, because whatever else they do, all businesses rely on the managing of information for two audiences -- employees and the world.  The increase in the power of both individuals and groups, outside traditional organized structures, is unprecedented.  Many institutions we rely on today will not survive this change without significant alteration, and the more an institution or industry relies on information as its core product, the greater and more complete the change will be.

I think Shirkey may be getting a little over-excited here.   I hope he makes some predictions about what types of new non-media organizations might be made practical, because the costs of organizing are reduced.  Among existing organizations, if we look at the small bakery down the street from where I live, social media could certainly help them advertise their recent opening, and they (sort of) have a Facebook page, they tweeted once two months ago, and they have a bare-bones MySpace page.  This might replace some of the old mass-media advertising they might have done in the past, and it might give them a new way to interact with some of their customers, or other restaurants like Barcelona, but I suspect social media has not fundamentally changed the way they do business.

Even for larger companies, social media is prompting big changes in how they manage their public relations, and forcing their PR and customer research units to interact more on social media.  Certainly the information gained this way could prompt changes in advertising, or in the product itself, and perhaps the information gleaned will be better than previously, but so far I see this as a big change only for PR and customer research, not for whole companies.