User-generated content focuses too little on the user

This post is a quick summary of my talk at the BSeC 2007 conference:

The main point I was hoping to convey to an audience professionally obsessed with buying and selling content, is focus more on the user, less on the content!

Most benefits of having a community that's willing to forgo American Idol for a moment and do your job come from having engaged users. User-generated content is old almost as soon as it's written - a trend that's only likely to accelerate. Moreover, the L.A. Times found out the hard way that users with no interest in your wellbeing may produce scads of content you'd rather do without.

On the other hand, if you nurture your users, pay attention to what they're doing, and build on that, you have a good chance of getting great user content almost as a happy surprise.

A second point is we have plenty of good metaphors to guide ourselves in this area. When I had to manage a cross-functional team (read: one that didn't have any real incentive to do what I said), I asked my mother for advice. She has a team of researchers who would fall on their swords for her. I was ready with pen and paper handy and all she told me was "Use common sense, and treat people with respect". Thanks Ma.

Point is, she was right not to try and give me "best practices" since I was working with a group of people (and people are varied and odd). I ended up leaning on things I already knew, and recalculating as I went.

In the case of building communities, we have plenty of good experience to lean on. I think of the example of a "moving party". My grad-school housemate introduced me to this. Basically, you invite a bunch of friends over after you've put most of your stuff in boxes. They pile your boxes into their cars and trucks and cart all your stuff to your new place. You repay their hard work with beers, food, and a party.

This metaphor works for me because 1) there's a clear leader with clear objectives (the person moving house), 2) you use the help of others, 3) they don't get overtly paid, 4) part of their motivation is in the communal nature of the activity - the party. You could organize such a get-together and focus primarily on the moving, but you're not likely to get much help if you forget the beer and ignore the party that has to happen in the new house. If you don't think you can pull off a moving party, you might consider hiring someone who can to run your community.

The final point I want to reiterate here is expertise can take the form of leadership. Building user reviews into ConsumerReports.org called for some thought about CR's role as expert. I won't discuss what CR decided here, because I haven't asked for permission. Let me just suggest that people are willing to take sensible direction. In our metaphor of the moving party, my friends didn't show up and move my stuff into some place of their choosing. Parameters were set and willing participants were put to work.