User-Generated Content: How Much Does it Cost If It’s Free?

User-created content is all the rage!

Heinz, as in ketchup and Mrs. Kerry, is looking for amateur ad types, but it’s expensive to wade through crap. And they should know.

ABC offers I-Caught, a magazine show using video captured by the unwashed and massaged into stories by those trained professionals at ABC News. David Sloan is the EP.

CNN already has I-Report up and running.

Topix gets some daily 40,000 posts since adding discussion groups and comments and local “editors”. The Los Angeles news is still 3 days old, alas.

And then there’s the downside: one nasty worm in a MySpace page can infect a million users.

Digg started taking down posts that broke the DMR encryption code for HD-DVD movies. Those users generated revolt; Digg backed off.

(Illustration from Wild Women Jewels.)

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