I don’t really know what the potential of this is - but I feel that it’s important. There are other forms of this as well, for instance the Global Incident Map. Peer-to-peer networks are providing a wider net of news and information than any traditional media organization can.

For an quick overview of web 2.0, check out this video by Michael Wesch. It is the best explanation I have come across of the ways web 2.0 is changing communication. Thanks to Sean Bohan for the pointer.

But now that we’re there, let’s take a step back. The nightly network news has a viewership of about 26 million people according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism. That number has declined steadily over the past 25 years as cable and the internet became more prevalent news sources.

Michael Wesch’s video has received more than 2 million views since posted on January 31st of this year. This is substantial from an online metrix perspective but still miniscule compared to the number of people who get their news from network sources. And online video is rarely consumed all at once. News spreads through word of mouth until it reaches a tipping point often weeks or months after its initial publication.

When you talk metrix, this is important. Because it is often more valuable to generate buzz through these networks of individuals than through a 30 second spot during the national news. Wesch’s video video has received nearly 5,000 comments and spawned 58 video responsese of its own.

But it is also important that 26 million people receive in half an hour ten times the views that the top YouTube videos get in a month.

The networks are still thought leaders in many ways and their guaranteed audience makes them powerful. User generated content has made some inroads, but most of the best content is in niche areas at the end of the long tail.

The answer seems to be in peer-to-peer aggregated content, with the so-called information democracy choosing what it likes best and allowing that to rise to the top. Meanwhile, when we talk about convergence, what will that actually look like? I would love to hear what people think.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 4:27 pm and is filed under P2P, User Generated, Viral, advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.