User-Generated Content: Microsoft vs. Google

Back in November I was urging you to submit your views on a consultation document on the role of copyright in the knowledge economy, put out by the European Commission. The submissions have now been published online, and I'm deeply disappointed to see that not many of took a blind bit of notice of my suggestion...

On Open Enterprise blog.

Follow me on Twitter @glynmoody

UK Government Fails to Get Web 2.0

This is so depressing:

There should be no new exemption from copyright law for users' adaptations of copyright-protected content, the UK Government has said. To create such an exemption for user-generated content would ignore the rights of content creators, it said.

...


"Another significant concern is the extent to which such an exemption might allow others to use the works in a way that the existing rights holders do not approve of and the impact that exemptions in this area might have on remuneration," it said.

In fact reading the full report is even more depressing, since it constantly harps on "stakeholders" - by which it means content owners - and clearly doesn't give a toss for the general public's concerns or needs.

The UK government is clearly still trapped in the mindset that it's about telling the little people what they can do with the stuff kindly provided by those magnanimous content corporations. Even extending exemptions for teaching and libraries are frowned upon as self-evidently bad things - can't spread that dangerous knowledge stuff too widely, now can we?

UGC "Principles" - Ugh!

Here's a fatuous little document:

Copyright Principles for UGC Services

Leading commercial copyright owners (“Copyright Owners”) and services providing user-uploaded and user-generated audio and video content (“UGC Services”) have collaborated to establish these Principles to foster an online environment that promotes the promises and benefits of UGC Services and protects the rights of Copyright Owners.

Well, no, actually. All it does is codify the petnulant demands of the media industry, and lay bare their incomprehension of the brave new world in which they find themselves, darkling. There is no quid pro quo for users (except "principle" no. 6: When sending notices and making claims of infringement, Copyright Owners should accommodate fair use. - Well, that's jolly nice of them), and precious little for any "UGC" service that signs up.

The most interesting thing about this utterly pointless exercise in self-delusion is that Microsoft has signed up, and Google hasn't, which speaks volumes about their respective positions as far as "UGC" and the media industries are concerned. Curious, too, that the whole document is marked "©2007 Microsoft Corporation" as if Microsoft had written the whole thing....

wikiHow Shows How

Although the fashinable wiki turns up all over the place, it's rare to come across really good uses of the idea. One fine example is wikiHow:

wikiHow is a collaborative writing project aiming to build the world's largest how-to manual. Our mission is to provide free and useful instructions to help people solve the problems of everyday life. As of this minute, wikiHow contains 25,548 articles. New articles are created every day and the existing articles are gradually improved by volunteer contributors. In time we envision this huge how to manual providing free, unbiased, accurate instructions on almost every topic imaginable. Please join us by contributing a new page or editing a page that someone else started.

As this points out, wikiHow has now passed 25,000 articles - a small number compared to Wikipedia's millions, but nonetheless a good start. (Via Creative Commons.)

Hugging Hugg.com

Although the site itself is nothing special, its name is sheer genius. (Via GigaOM.)

Quakr, the New Quake?

Well, no, not really: actually, it's much more impressive:

Quakr is a project to build a 3-dimensional world from user contributed photos.

Google Earth Meets Second Life

Apparently, Google Earth now has a layer that includes user-generated buildings:

What you get is the best of 3D Warehouse's textured buildings uploaded by users, downloaded by default as you zoom in.

But the really interesting bit is as follows:

As speculated on Ogle Earth before, and now confirmed, Google is harnessing the creativity of its users to populate its Earth with 3D textured buildings, whereas Microsoft Virtual Earth is engaging in "central planning", with a concerted effort to map 3D textures onto models using technology from its recent acquisitions. Which is quicker and/or better will become apparent over time.

But what happens when a user deletes a contributed building from 3D Warehouse? I went looking for the answer in the terms of service, and the answer is quite clear (I think): Although you own your content, uploading it to 3D Warehouse gives Google a "perpetual license" to reproduce both the content and derivative works of the content, even if you later remove it from your account.

Which, of course, is precisely the approach that Second Life takes.

Is Helium Enough of a Gas to Lift Off?

User-generated sites are becoming increasingly accepted as a viable way of creating information and even money. But there's a huge problem faced by any new entrant in this sector. For a site to draw in new contributors, it needs lots of readers; but to gain those readers, you need good content, which means lots of good contributors.

A good example of this Catch-22 situation in practice is the new Helium: there's nothing wrong with the site, but equally there's nothing special about it either (though the use of peer review is interesting), so it's hard to see it gaining the momentum needed for it to succeed. (Via ContentBlogger.)

CNN's Citizen Media is the Message

The news that CNN is now soliciting user-generated stories and content - rather as the BBC has been doing for a while - is important not so much for what will result, but for the message it sends. Even if the user-generated content turns out to be nugatory, the fact that CNN is jumping on this bandwagon gives the latter more impetus, which can't be a bad thing in terms of re-inventing media.

We're All Content Creators, Now (Well, Almost)

The Pew Reports are invaluable for their independent, irreproachable findings. So when the latest one says that 35% of US Internet users have posted content, you'd better believe it. One third down, two thirds to go.