Googling further on the topic I saw an interesting study by Accenture on “User-Generated Content Is Top Threat to Media and Entertainment Industry”.

The study goes on say that such content will continue to grow and the user will gain:
* Increased power – As he can now create more content and hence can direct where a social network would grow. While the study did not examine Virtual Worlds – I would submit that a similar trend would be visible in this space too. With a far more impact being felt in such Virtual Worlds
* Increased control – The user can direct what kind of content can be published.

At this point I would aim to classify such UGC into two key categories
* Individual directed Content – This content is targeted to Avatar customizations, the way your avatar looks, dresses, walks, talks. Where are the areas that are visited, what kind of content is bought out and is used actively and also the social network of other Avatars he or she interacts with.
* Environment directed Content - This content is specifically targeted to creating the environments in which these Avatars interact in with regard to the Virtual Worlds. So whether it is a fancy art gallery or a pub or even a retail store of the future.

Different Virtual Worlds have taken different view points on the level of freedom that they give their Users with creating the above two types of content. While most Virtual Worlds give Users the chance to create Individual Oriented Content, many limit the amount content that can be Environment-directed.

One of my favourite Virtual World – Doppelganger’s vSide actually limits the amount of content that one can create from an Environment perspective.

Usually there is a cost associated with each of the types of content.
* So while Second Life requires you to have a Premium membership to buy land, you dont need one to create content whether Individual / Environment oriented.
* Doppelganger on the other hand requires you to buy individual content and has little or no flexibility with the customizations one can do from an environment based.

We see differing revenue models too.
* While Linden Labs (the creators of Second Life) have very limited custom content created by them other than the main archipelago they have a revenue model where they make money out of allowing people to create Environment oriented Content.
* Doppelganger on the other hand has a revenue model which is targeted specifically towards Individual based Content and makes money out of such sales and partnerships.

An older article by Robin Good says that “UGC is online content publishers most promising future” and I accept his thesis, however which sphere will lead to more revenues remains to be seen.

I conclude quoting from the Search Engine Roundtable :
“1) Users spend a lot of time in UGC (user generated content)

2) Consumers expect to be able to make their own content

3) Consumers trust user generated content

4) Product reviews increase sales

5) Increases conversions”

And hence UGC will become the key determining criteria for Virtual Worlds

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1) As defined by Wikipedia:

“User-generated content (UGC), also known as Consumer Generated Media or User-created Content (UCC), refers to various kinds of media content that are produced by end-users.”

2) Scribe Media in their interaction with Cory Ondrejka report:

“Unlike most upload-your-content-and-we’ll-share-it-in-some-sort-of-social-media-Web-2-point-oh-way, content creation in Second Life is really, really, difficult.

Yet people still create and people still come to those creations. By Ondrejka’s account, users have contributed over $500 million in design and development within Second Life.”

3) McKinsey’s study on “How Companies can make the most of user-generated content”

“We observed that users cite a variety of reasons for posting content online—chief among them, a hunger for fame, the urge to have fun, and a desire to share experiences with friends (Exhibit 1). While some users were open to the idea of being compensated for their contributions, that wasn’t a primary driver: the people we studied weren’t paid for their contributions.”

4) Web Analytics Article on “User Generated Content starts small then snowballs”

“Over time, participation rates throughout the user group increase. In 2004, for example, 90 percent of the contributions to Wikipedia came from just 2 percent of its users; by 2006, the top 2.5 percent of them were responsible for only 60 percent of all new content.”

Thoughts around User Generated Content:

• The Creators
• The Users
• Impact of Creations in VWs
• Does UGC drives VWs interactions

The creators as has been seen are mostly a small percentage who let their creative juices flow and design / create items for the Virtual World in this case.

The users enjoy / utilize the previously generated content for their endeavors, sometimes tweaking them slightly like positioning the created content or compiling different content from various places and putting it all together. An example would be I collect various types of Buildings in Second life, various types of Furniture and then put them in a house that I can then call my own. The very act of compiling different content and putting them in a certain arrangement can count as UGC again as that would be a new permutation. So a user could actually be creator as well. Somebody customizing their avatar to make it look a certain way could actually be UGC as well, since the user doesnt actually create anything new, but chooses a particular combination.

The impact on Virtual Worlds is that it leads to a rich set of environment that can be used by the world. Worlds like Second Life have leveraged this to become highly collaborative in nature and lead to immense amount of participation in their environment. When a person spends time on creating / customizing things they feel more attached to it and tend to build other things around it. So once one customized their avatar, they might want to get an area for their, hence the presence of house lenders in Second Life.

As opposed to Second Life, Doppelganger’s vSide has a dedicated team that builds out the environment. (Excellent post by Metaversed.com here).

“They employ a team of virtual architects, some of whom have backgrounds with the Sims and Halo. Littlefield describes the visual quality of vSide as AAA, applied to a virtual social environment.”

The user basically has a MMORPG kind of interface where the user has a definite task like listening to music, finding easter eggs.

Another interesting thing that should be considered is that interactions with people can be in a way be UGC itself. The very nature of interactions can be interepreted as that.

Also at the same time, I feel that UGC is very important, and unlike what some people consider that UGC is secondary, my conclusion is that is perhaps the most important factor for VWs. VWs like Second life gives tools to its users who can build 3D models without the need for expensive 3d tools like Maya or trying to learn open source 3D tools like Blender.

Finally the last word from my side is that UGCs have been the reason for the Virtual Worlds success and the more collaboration that is manifested as user generated content are responsible for mass-adoption of Virtual Worlds.