The New York Times today carries an interesting article (registration required – free for 7 days) by Richard Siklos who says that "the new new thing in media is getting paid for the homemade". Here are some snippets (italics) along with some of my thoughts on the issues raised (normal text):
Jerry Yang, a Yahoo co-founder, said in an interview recently: "I think ultimately we’re trying to field a community where people feel comfortable and productive, and that with every investment on Yahoo, they’re getting more back. How we reward, and how we implement that, I think, is still very early."
Yahoo’s first attempts at paying for user generated content have been confined to Yahoo Answers but I’ve blogged her previously my thoughts about the possibility of turning flickr (owned by Yahoo) into a giant stock photo library and won’t be surprised if they do just that in future.
One question is whether the use of financial incentives will put a damper on the spirit of unfettered self-expression and generosity that has infused much of the growth of user-created material. "Right now, people are doing all sorts of things on the Internet for the good of the community — it’s like volunteering," said Dan Ariely, a professor at the M.I.T. Media Lab. "The question is, In what ways will it change the willingness of people to help? In this way I actually worry."
Absolutely. When you pay users to create and submit content, you’re bound to encourage certain types of contributions from certain contributors. When users don’t expect anyone to pay for their content, they’re more free to post whatever takes their fancy – and that unrestricted publishing of user generated content is part of what’s so great about websites that give amateurs and audience. As soon as you start paying the dynamics change in ways we don’t necessarily understand yet.
Chris Charron, an analyst at Forrester Research, said people should not be left with the impression that they can make small fortunes sitting in their underwear at home surfing the Web. "Many users who hope to make a lot of money creating content will probably be disappointed," Mr. Charron said. "All content is not created equally."
When content is paid for you lose that inclusiveness that many web users have learned to expect of the internet. News and media organisations are never going to be able to publish more than a small percentage of content submitted to them. This leads to disappointment for the majority of would be contributors. If we can figure out how to allow everyone to publish their content, but come up with interesting ways for that content to be selectively filtered by users, we’ll be able to create an environment that’s inclusive but where quality contributions bubble to the top.