UGC to bite back?

Robert Scoble, the Microsoft blogger who is leaving Microsoft to join a vodcasting start up, writes about “the screwing of the Long Tail” by which he means all the companies that are making advertising dollars from user generated content. Is there a chance that these users will combine and rise up and create a new model in which they combine and keep most of the money they collectively generate themselves? He thinks there’s a chance.

Diet Coke & Mentos Video demonstrates the new economy

There was a lot of noise on the web last week (which was even picked up by The Today Programme on Friday) about the discovery that adding Mentos mints to a bottle of Diet Coke produces an entertaining reaction. One enterprising team even produced a “firework display” using the technique and set it to music. Now, PaidContent.org is reporting that the team has so far made $15,000 in advertising revenue from the clip which has so far been viewed a staggering 2.5 million times. The clip, which cost $300 to make (mostly in bottles of Coke and Mentos) was posted on Revver.com which shares ad revenue 50:50 with it’s content creators.

What will the next big things be in 5 years?

It started with a Yahoo! Answers question… then Leondard’s blog took up the challenge and produced a good list of products and services which in his view will become essential in five years time.
They include:

  • Software as a service becomes more standard.

  • Global identity framework, referred to by some as “Identity 2.0.”

  • Digital Media – more and more of it, some cheap and some free, carried on many gadgets of many sizes, with wireless access to sync and stream effortlessly.

  • Smart phones.

  • RFID

  • Self monitoring

  • Personal aggregators

  • Shared everything.