Four news stories this week highlight the importance of user-generated content:
YAHOO ROUTES USER CONTENT TO REUTERS
Yahoo's new "You Witness News" lets users upload their photos and video for possible display on its news site as well as Reuters.com, and, next year, throughout the Reuters news service for traditional media.
Editors at both Reuters and Yahoo will review the submissions for placement on pages with relevant news articles.
Users will not be paid for images displayed on the Yahoo and Reuters sites, although those distributed to Reuters' clients will be paid for.
SCOOPT SELLS FLICKR PHOTOS
Scoopt says it wants to "release the untapped value" of the pictures stored on the Flickr photo sharing website.
Scoopt licenses amateur content to mainstream media. Now the site is encouraging Flickr members to tag images with the "scoopt" keyword to indicate that they content is available for sale; Scoopt will then "push" the images to buyers "in direct response to demand."
On its website, the company posted "an open letter to Flickr members" which stated: "Here at Scoopt, we love Flickr. We love Flickr because Flickr members are some of the best snappers on the planet.
"Some of your photos are worth hard cash to newspapers and magazines... but media buyers don't have time to contact you individually, agree prices, make one-off payments etc.
"Scoopt wants to change all this! We want to license your great photos commercially and split the profits with you."
Sales revenue is split 50/50 between Scoopt and the photographer.
The photographer keeps full copyright.
Free Scoopt membership is required.
ONE TRUE MEDIA WORKS WITH NBC UNIVERSAL
One True Media says it has been chosen by NBC Universal to handle viewer video creation and submission for the new "iVillage Live" daytime talk show.
The dual broadcast/online show "will encourage viewers to submit their own videos and commentary around topics on the show, such as parenting, fitness and entertaining."
The producers say "iVillage Live" is the first interactive daytime talk show that lets viewers direct the action through live chat, daily polls and comments as well as video submissions.
One True Media says it also enables consumers to share their video creations by emailing them to friends, posting on popular video sites, and sending them to friends and family through TiVo for TV viewing.
YOUTUBE EASES AUTOMATIC UPLOADS
Top user-generated video site YouTube now lets users record video directly to the site using a PC-connected camera. The Quick Capture features uses an Adobe Flash Player API to save live video directly to the site.
While this makes it easier for users to "publish" their video, it also carries with it the difficulty of a live TV broadcast: there is no editing a video once it's recorded.
[Also: Like the many test pages from its parent company, YouTube also debuted "TestTube" page, which it called its "ideas incubator" -- "where YouTube engineers and developers test out recipes and concoctions that aren't quite fully baked and invite you to tell us how they're coming along."]
----- Paul Worthington
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