Showing posts with label UGU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UGU. Show all posts

November 03, 2007

User Generated Companies

You know i'm no fan of the web 2.0 nomenclature, wherein resides my least favorite 'user-generated content'. However, the UGC thang has caught on--that dog CAN hunt it appears. We have gone from being consumers (think pacman) to users (think heroine) in what seems to be a blink of the eye. It all means the same things: we are the targeted.

One thing, though, is that as producers, we are generating stuff. Like entire companies. In my line of work, I have to confess, it makes me smile when an ordinary user becomes an all-of-a-sudden, web20-CEO-founder-speaker-thought-leader. Few months ago the guy liked catching and gutting fish. Now he's the ceo of a well-funded social network called fishpals. Okay so I'm exaggerating. But not buy much.

The thing that makes web 2.o palatable is that regular people who like to do regular things -- goofballs like you and me -- are building companies around stuff they like to do. Now this happened the first time around SORT OF, but during the dot-com days, you remember, it was all about e-commerce. How do I sell you shit without you having to leave your chair. And on the B2B side, it was supply chain optimization really: how do we get shit to and from each other cheaper/faster/better using les internetz.

So, yeah, it's a bubble. Sure it's a bubble. But at least we get to play around with stuff. We have user generated users (friends of friends of friends trying other friends' products/services) and user generated companies (companies started by people formerly known as users) creating a service for every possible hobby/passion/want/need/wish.

Fascinating how it can be so interesting and so damn annoying at the same time.

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