The Xplor View - July 2008 - (Page 18)

of an event? What is the definition of amateur content? What is considered ‘professional,’ and who decides? Navigating the content barrage These questions defy easy answers largely because the phenomenon of user-generated content is so broad. Werbach notes that even the professional media cannot establish a definition. For instance, Newsweek cited Mahalo, a peopleenabled search engine and About.com, an information resource that features individuals as guides on various topics, as examples of how vetted content is regaining favour. However, Werbach does not consider those sites to be professional. “It’s amusing that two of the examples the Newsweek article cites as examples of the ‘revenge of the experts’—Mahalo and About.com—are what I would call amateur sites. They do not use professional journalists or researchers; they use knowledgeable enthusiasts to serve as human filters. The fact that those human filters get paid does not change anything. What makes someone an amateur is not the absence of money; it’s the absence of traditional credentials.” Whitehouse distinguishes professional content on the basis of its editorial process. “Carefully checked sources and consistent editorial guidelines are key differences between most professional and amateur content,” he suggests, while noting that, “Both bring value. The latter brings quickness and a personal viewpoint and the former provides analysis and consistent quality. The world I want to live in includes healthy doses of both categories.” The professional vs amateur debate has arisen due to an explosion of content on the Internet, Werbach adds. “Before the web, most user-generated models simply could not match the scale of professionally produced content because aggregation and distribution were significant bottlenecks. Now it’s so much cheaper to publish content and pull together user input.” Meanwhile, Turow points out that navigating the morass of Internet content is not easy. “Some things that look amateur are professional and vice versa. You never really know what’s going on. And it’s hard to track these things down without cross checking. The digital environment is putting an enormous responsibility on the consumer.” Waldfogel acknowledges that consumers have to become better judges of content and accuracy, but says that not everyone will be a discerning reader. “Some consumers can tell what is amateur, but it’s not easy. A lot of amateur content is cut and pasted from professional content.” What would be helpful for navigating content, suggests Karta Hosanagar, Wharton professor of operations and information management, is a rating system based on consumer rankings that would verify accuracy and prevent user-generated sites from being manipulated. “A natural evolution of the user-generated content world is that users will soon have to earn their rights rather than take them for granted. If you are making contributions that most other users agree is useful to the community, you get more rights,” says Hosanagar. “This does not mean that we are moving back to a centralized world run by experts. It just means that we have more effective filters in place to ensure that we can separate the wheat from the chaff.” content—face a bevy of challenges, Wharton faculty point out. Newspaper companies must deal with higher production and staffing costs, movie and television studios have to pay talent and royalties, and the recording industry has been upended by digital distribution. The growth of new monetization efforts such as web-based advertising are not yet robust enough to offset the decline in these media companies’ legacy businesses. “Where the distinction between amateur and professional content matters is in business models,” says Werbach. “For certain kinds of quality content, no blog can match The New York Times, but producing the Times is far more expensive than a blog. If users are not willing to pay to support the kind of professional journalism the Times provides, something significant will be lost. And that’s increasingly happening, because traditional business models for newspapers and TV rely on unrelated advertising revenues to fund quality content. The Internet is disintermediating those funds.” The underlying business model is one reason that user-generated content is so attractive: You do not have to pay volunteer journalists and amateur talent. Waldfogel, however, notes that even amateurs will face business model challenges as their content evolves. “What are the real economics of putting out something that’s worth watching?” asks Waldfogel. “Producing a blog that anybody wants to read is hard.” To get content that people want to see requires investment. “The problem: It’s unclear whether consumers will pay for content—no matter how good it is. All this suggests that the business models surrounding both amateur and professional content will remain in flux, at least for a while. The old models just will not apply anymore,” says Fader, adding that, today “almost all content Business model experimentation Ultimately, the tug of war between professional and user-generated content will be resolved by their business models. Traditional media companies—the ones behind professional 18 The VIEW Journal Xplor European Edition Issue 5 July 2008 http://About.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Xplor View - July 2008

The Xplor View - July 2008 Contents Cover Story: Drupa 2008: The Highlights Review New Technology: Inkjet Technologies Moving Forward New Technology: QR Codes: Leading Edge but not Bleeding Edge A Fresh Look at Electronic Document Delivery Management: Growing Your Business Through Tendering The Experts Versus the Amateurs News: Xplor UK & Ireland Supports Total Print! Expo� Part Two: The Latest Developments in Knowledge Management Xplor Europe News: Short News Items for the Xplor UK Programme and Europe News

The Xplor View - July 2008

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