Prompt's TechBlog
Web 2.0 'not all that participatory' shocker
19 April 2007
Posted by Fiona Campbell-HowesReuters and others are reporting from this week's Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco that the participatory web isn't very participatory after all.
Stats from internet monitoring firm Hitwise reveal that less than one percent of visits to 'user-generated content' sites like Flickr and YouTube are from people planning to upload content. Most people just go to these sites to look at the photos and videos that other people have put there.
Wikipedia leads the pack as the most participated-in Web 2.0 site, with 4.6% of visits resulting in an amendment or addition made to the site's content.
In my view, though, it's not the number of people using these sites that's important, but the fact that they're there at all. They allow people to bypass traditional media and publishers to get their voices heard and find a global audience for their creative work.
So although user volumes are relatively low today, the growing number of Web 2.0 sites still provide the infrastructure for an alternative (complementary?) media that's controlled by the people, rather than by a handful of uber-powerful moguls. And that, in my book, is a good thing for everyone.
Labels: web 2.0
# posted by Fiona Campbell-Howes at 1:47 PM 
Comments:
In a strange way, as a musician and writer, I find this comforting. I am quite glad to have a broader audience for more artists, but at the same time, it would be somewhat sad if everyone was a producer and no one a consumer. It's been said (by several people) that nowadays "everyone writes and no one reads." It's heartening that there is still an audience for the vast quantity of work that is (still) being posted.
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