User generated content (UGC) covers a range of media content available in a range of modern communications technologies. It entered mainstream usage during 2005 having arisen in web publishing and new media content production circles. Its use for a wide range of applications, including problem processing, news, gossip and research, reflects the expansion of media production through new technologies that are accessible and affordable to the general public. All digital media technologies are included, such as question-answer databases, digital video, blogging, podcasting, forums, review-sites, social networking, mobile phone photography and wikis. In addition to these technologies, user generated content may also employ a combination of open source, free software, and flexible licensing or related agreements to further reduce the barriers to collaboration, skill-building and discovery.

This book is your ultimate resource for User Generated Content. Here you will find the most up-to-date information, analysis, background and everything you need to know.

In easy to read chapters, with extensive references and links to get you to know all there is to know about User Generated Content right away, covering: User-generated content, Citizen media, Associated Content, BlogTV, Challenge for Change, Citizen journalism, Community media, Democratic journalism, Digital journalism, Digital public square, Drama 2.0, Global Voices Online, Guerrilla television, Holy Mountain (website), Learner generated context, Participatory media, Participatory video, Save the Internet, TrekMovie.com, TVTV, Videofreex, Wiki journalism, Collective intelligence, Adaptive website, Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm, Bees algorithm, Central media, Civic intelligence, Cold start, Collaborative filtering, Collaborative intelligence, Collective consciousness, Collective memory, Collective wisdom, Consumer-generated marketing, DailyPerfect, Decentralized decision making, Socially Distributed Cognition, Dotmocracy, E-participation, Group intelligence, Helium.com, The IRG Solution, Jumper 2.0, Knowledge Plaza, Knowledge tag, The Lucifer Principle, Meme, MyBlogLog, Open Source Center, Open source intelligence, Organizational intelligence, Scarab Research, Science.tv, Smart mob, Social choice theory, Social data analysis, Superorganism, Swarm intelligence, System justification, Urtak, Wreckamovie.

This book explains in-depth the real drivers and workings of User Generated Content. It reduces the risk of your technology, time and resources investment decisions by enabling you to compare your understanding of User Generated Content with the objectivity of experienced professionals.