First we have a blip in Facebook numbers now we have mainstream publications such as Newsweek putting the boot into “user generated content” and trying to take ownership of new phrases for the public lexicon such as “Web 3.0″.

NW’s positions Web3.0 as life after the era of Digital Maoism - or that is mob rule.

The article suggests that consumers are tired with wading through low-value content and both publishers and readers alike are now willing to forego the benefits of consumer created content to entertain paid content from “experts”.

Phenomena such as Wikipedia, brought to you by young 20 and 30 somethings is now facing a new competitor in the form of Knol backed by none other than Google.

In December, Google began testing Knol, a Wikipedia-like Web site produced by “authoritative” sources that share ad revenue. The sample page contains an insomnia entry written by Rachel Manber, director of Stanford’s Insomnia and Behavioral Sleep Medicine center. In January, BigThink.com, a self-styled “YouTube for ideas” backed by former Harvard president Larry Summers and others, debuted its cache of polished video interviews with public intellectuals. “We think there’s demand for a nook of cyberspace where depth of knowledge and expertise reign,” says cofounder Victoria Brown.

Google, the company that facilitated much of the recent uplift in blogging and consumer generated video is itself facing competitive pressure from edited search engines such as Mahalo

mobileYouth Comment 

Media is as quick to dismiss technological developments as “fads” as they are to hype them in the first place. In essence, this underpins any industry “hype curve” where expectations overrun the reality of the value on offer. Bill Gates said “We always overestimate the impact of technology in the next 2 years but underestimate it over the following 10″.

Consumer generated content is typical of this statement. Gone are the days when young consumers readily accepted the mediated version of content that we accepted in our youth. However, youth will always value to some degree the role of trusted brands in providing content leadership. The BBC for example has long considered what its role will be in the future of an evolving media landscape - whether on the one hand as a trusted editor of content or the other as a platform for the wealth of consumer generated content out there. As with most truths, the colour is grey - somewhere in between. It won’t be Web 3.0 or Web 2.0 in Newsweek terms but a medium where the BBC’s brand equity shapes the tone of the platform on which both paid contributors and open house consumer inclusions are available.

Tags | bbc, CGC, consumer generated content, Media, newsweek