I’ll be talking next Friday at a conference at Columbia on the effects of User-Generated Content. Here’s the overview:
The rapid increase of user-generated content on the Internet is a source of concern for traditional media firms. Will the YouTubes, Facebooks, Flickrs, Second Lifes and the HuffPos take away significant audience segments on a sustaining basis? What are the ramifications for intellectual property law, for the trust of news sources, for political polarization? Will reputational systems and wikis replace traditional institutional authorities? The symposium will review findings on current web user behavior and on evolving online business models to better understand the contours of these new economic and social realities– let’s call it Web 3.0.