60% of U.S. Internet users viewed some kind of user-generated content in 2008.
What was most popular? 54% read blogs, 41% participated in social networks, 36% watched user-generated videos, and 34% read wikis.
The Internet and its software creates opportunities that were inconceivable ten years ago, when self-expression consisted of letters to the editor, town hall meetings, and call-in shows. Read how teens are generating content online.
What has been your experience with user-generated content? In what ways do you feel that Church Web sites could encourage people to contribute content online? How can this be used to build testimony and create a new generation of cyber-missionaries?
I’d like it if the Church would produce more short video clips for member bloggers to embed into their blogs. Or, making it easy to embed general conference talks would be a nice addition to the Church’s website.
I seriously doubt it’s as low as 60%. Most of the web today is user-generated. I bet most of the other 40% simply don’t know what counts as user-generated.
A joke from a recent episode of the Office exemplifies this. Something exciting was happening in the office and Michael (the boss) says, “we have to get the people from YouTube over here to film it.”
This is the perception of a lot of people. They think Wikipedia comes about just like the Encyclopedia Brittanica, and YouTube is just a TV station on the Internet. A lot of people just don’t know.
Nate,
The Church has put some videos on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/MormonMessages, and they’ll be posting more each week. Feel free to embed them in your blogs and Web sites.
I’ll post a blog in a few days with links to other great videos already available.