“Google uses Crowd sourcing to create maps in India” interesting as it sounds the fact is Google provides local residents with GPS tool kits so that they can draw the map of their area more accurately and transfer data to Google Databases where it is transferred on to a Map. Also before actually putting the map online Google verifies the data against number of other participant’s data before making it part of the map. Moral of the story – To leverage User generated Content you still need to polish it professionally.
Internet has given voice to Users. Consumers can review products, discuss costs benefits, exchange information and publish innovative ideas. This change is influencing their decision making capability i.e. purchasing decisions. In last couple of weeks I have read lot about Users and how there online involvement is benefiting or can benefit organizations. There is an increase prevalence of user created data at places like Blogs, YouTube and Wiki and this data is slowly making its way to corporate world. But the question is, is this raw data-with out professional touch- useful to corporate world? Can this data in its actual format be applied by businesses? The answer is NO.
Nick Haley-freshmen at University of Leeds, England was so impressed by Apple’s iTouch that he created his own ad and published it on YouTube. Apple’s marketing Executives noticed it and Nick was in the official Team of Apple’s Ad agency. YouTube gave Nick the platform to demonstrate his talent by publishing his ad and apple gave Nick the opportunity to fine tune his talent which is turn is benefiting both Nick and Apple.
User created content needs to be refined so that it can be aligned with the desired outputs. Businesses should use user generated web contents to complement their traditional sources of information and hence its important that the information in form of video, blogs, article etc is verified, tuned to needs, dressed professionally.
Equally important is to make sure that information coming from users is trustworthy. How much can corporate trusts on videos, reviews, articles, blogs that exist online? I was looking for reviews for a digital camera I wanted to buy for myself. Though I read many feedbacks online, my final decision was greatly influenced by review done by Professional reviewers. This element of trust and honest should be highly desirable when it comes to unedited sources of information. It becomes morally the duty of company to make sure that data or information they are intending to use is reliable and correct.
The trick lies in how organizations can come up with ways to capture and utilize user generated content in a meaningful manner.
http://www.pluck.com/social-media/why-social-media.html
http://www.eff.org/issues/ip-and-free-speech/fair-use-principles-usergen
http://mashable.com/2007/10/28/the-user-generated-content-reality/
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/08/google_uses_cro.html
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I totally agree with your view. There are a lot of benefits avaiable from UGC but the critical point is how it is going to be leveraged. As you said whenever I want to read reviews of products I only trust reputed website which publish reviews. There are thousands of reviews avaiable on the web but it is becoming very difficult to determine which is the honest one.
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