Mike DelGaudio

Conducted By: Derek Powazek, Heather Champ

(These are my notes, they’ll be choppy.)

Derek – “Trying to apply technology to an emerging trend is like trying to paint a house that is still being built.”

So what is “User Generated Content”
- Derek:calls it “Authentic Media”. – is Big media inauthentic.
- Revised to “Hybrid Media”
But really it’s s”stuff people make because its fun.” Or they are good at it.

Step one 1: The Talent is out there.
When the web came to people first, it was trivialized
“It’s full of pictures of people cats. (but has that really changed?)”

It is accepted, that there is good stuff out there on the web., whether it is
Amazon.com reviews, or Wikipedia, or mass set pricing on eBay.

So how do you build a site that grows out there?
…. If you try to build a community you can’t (you can nurture them and help them grow) but they cannot be “built”.

But, You have to build your site for elasticity. — Heather
- Give them the tools that they want.
- Expect that they will do the right thing
- Reward the people who are doing what you want. (leading by example)
- Punish the bad. Make sure the harmful can be made to leave.
- Expect the unexpected.

An interesting side not about elasticity: Consider the GM Tahoe ad thing,
Some common thinking is that one of the reasons there was so much venom in the ads,
is because the people were confined into such a small box… they could not upload own video
own photos, they could not download the video, post it to youtube, email it,
it could only be seen on GM’s site. It was so limited, people, rebelled.
Alternatively, give many ins and outs..like flickr and Base and Delicious

When people use your system in a way that you do not expect, they are doing you a favor
They are showing you what they WANT to do. (Don’t assume they are stupid, assume you
are stupid for not giving them the tool to let them do what they want)

Give people a reason:
- Ego
- Toolset
- Monetary
- Entice participation.

Step 2: Finding the good stuff.
How do you separate out the good stuff.

1 – Editors, hire people who decide what the good stuff is.
it worked for newspapers.
– Non Traditional editors – Helpfulness, moderation. Reputation
2. Computers — what Google did, for example, have an algorithm
that determines the better stuff
3 – Hybrid: Flickr’s Interestingness.A secret sauce that evaluated what people
do with the stuff to devise a vote. But try to design against gaming.

Step 3 – Wisdom of Crowds — “The wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki ”
- Individuals a wrong, but if you average all those wrong answers together
You’ll probably get the right answer.

Communities Make money.
Communities form around commerce all the time. It’s ok to make money, if the community supports the money-making effort. Do it at their expense and they will abandon you.

Conducted By: Derek Powazek, Heather Champ

(These are my notes, they’ll be choppy.)

Derek – “Trying to apply technology to an emerging trend is like trying to paint a house that is still being built.”

So what is “User Generated Content”
- Derek:calls it “Authentic Media”. – is Big media inauthentic.
- Revised to “Hybrid Media”
But really it’s s”stuff people make because its fun.” Or they are good at it.

Step one 1: The Talent is out there.
When the web came to people first, it was trivialized
“It’s full of pictures of people cats. (but has that really changed?)”

It is accepted, that there is good stuff out there on the web., whether it is
Amazon.com reviews, or Wikipedia, or mass set pricing on eBay.

So how do you build a site that grows out there?
…. If you try to build a community you can’t (you can nurture them and help them grow) but they cannot be “built”.

But, You have to build your site for elasticity. — Heather
- Give them the tools that they want.
- Expect that they will do the right thing
- Reward the people who are doing what you want. (leading by example)
- Punish the bad. Make sure the harmful can be made to leave.
- Expect the unexpected.

An interesting side not about elasticity: Consider the GM Tahoe ad thing,
Some common thinking is that one of the reasons there was so much venom in the ads,
is because the people were confined into such a small box… they could not upload own video
own photos, they could not download the video, post it to youtube, email it,
it could only be seen on GM’s site. It was so limited, people, rebelled.
Alternatively, give many ins and outs..like flickr and Base and Delicious

When people use your system in a way that you do not expect, they are doing you a favor
They are showing you what they WANT to do. (Don’t assume they are stupid, assume you
are stupid for not giving them the tool to let them do what they want)

Give people a reason:
- Ego
- Toolset
- Monetary
- Entice participation.

Step 2: Finding the good stuff.
How do you separate out the good stuff.

1 – Editors, hire people who decide what the good stuff is.
it worked for newspapers.
– Non Traditional editors – Helpfulness, moderation. Reputation
2. Computers — what Google did, for example, have an algorithm
that determines the better stuff
3 – Hybrid: Flickr’s Interestingness.A secret sauce that evaluated what people
do with the stuff to devise a vote. But try to design against gaming.

Step 3 – Wisdom of Crowds — “The wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki ”
- Individuals a wrong, but if you average all those wrong answers together
You’ll probably get the right answer.

Communities Make money.
Communities form around commerce all the time. It’s ok to make money, if the community supports the money-making effort. Do it at their expense and they will abandon you.

Apologies for the light blogging recently. Things have been hectic. I’m in San Francisco now at the Web 2.0 Expo. I’m going to take a turn away from Picasa for the week an Blog some notes from the conference.

Apologies for the light blogging recently. Things have been hectic. I’m in San Francisco now at the Web 2.0 Expo. I’m going to take a turn away from Picasa for the week an Blog some notes from the conference.