eVandals

The Value of Online Content: Practically Nothing - Editorial @ FolioMag.com

Good read, exploit workers to as low as they'll go.

Sharksfan

You know - I read the original Wired article a while back.

The economics of this make complete sense. Previously (aka, prior to the internet) you had a relatively small pool of people who could create content. Not only did you need an education and the ability to land a job but the tools were expensive.

Typewriters were tools for the professional only for many decades.

Computers were tools for professionals only for many years.

The ability to do video was the realm of studios for 70+ years - even when I was in college in the early 90's a "cheap" video camera that could do good quality video (ie, television quality) was $10,000.

Now - it has all changed. People who can write well but do not have an education can produce content. People with cheap video cameras can produce content with very little skills.

The demand for content has of course soared with the internet. But the ability to produce content has far outpaced the demand - therefore, prices should drop dramatically.

HotHat

From an IM perspective this is the main point to leverage on.
The content overloading is a problem for old time content producer, used to be paid for their names.

But you'd think to not direct effects of user-generated content: the end of traditional newspapers in the few next years.