User-Generated Content

This declaration by 'Bus Uncle', an irate senior citizen caught on camera in Hong Kong and posted on YouTube, could also apply to media owners. They have been largely caught unawares by the growth of such sites as Flickr, YouTube, OhMyNews and MySpace. Their growth stems from both better broadband availability and the increased scope for tribalism, identity expression and personalisation that user-generated content provides. Paul Saffo of the marvellously titled Institute of the Future notes that this could herald a 'Cambrian explosion' of creativity: a flowering of expressive diversity on the scale of the eponymous proliferation of biological species 530 million years ago. So what does this trend mean for wireless carriers? Neale Anderson looks at the implications.