‘‘At the end of the day, consumers aren’t that interested in creating their own content,’’ said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of Jupiter Research in New York. ‘‘They’re far more interested in consuming other peoples’ content. That’s why they call them consumers.’’Dear Michael,
Take a look at cameras, instant cameras, digital cameras and cameraphones. Look how many people are posting their pictures to flickr.
Technorati reports that "between 30,000 and 40,000 new blogs are being created every single day - more than double the number (15,000 per day) from October."
Audio podcasts are exploding in popularity with 4232 weblogs actively tracked at ipodder.org.
With new tools making it easier for people to create and share video, video blogging watch for the popularity of videoblogging to explode.
I'll admit to being somewhat of a couch potato media consumer, but a selective one. TiVo helps make my TV watching smarter. I track 164 blog feeds with bloglines. Most of these feeds contain content created by consumers.
These days I'm watching more and more consumer created video using my video aggregator, ANT.
Michael, you might not be able to see the desire for people to create their own media right now because desire is not a tangible thing.
You're probably looking for examples of consumer created content, but don't see it.
I can tell you where it is. It's in old shoeboxes and dresser drawers. It's on old Kodachrome slides and VHS tapes.
Lots of people create media but don't have an easy way to share it. That's what's coming. Look at what's happening at Our Media.
JD Lasica says, "Months from now, Ourmedia.org will evolve from a destination website to an open registry -- a network of likeminded grassroots sites that freely share personal media with a global audience."
So that's where we're heading.
--Steve