"The Web is steadily becoming a utility of the masses. We have become familiar with using the Web for communicating, surfing, shopping, receiving information in different forms, and a host of other usage attributes

Post by Clay Shirkey on "user generated content"

A book about organizing without organizations

In the last several years we’ve seen the rise and fall of many social web applications. While most of our attention gets paid to the hugely successful ones like YouTube and Facebook, we can also learn a lot from those that have failed. Here are some of the common pitfalls that lead to failure when building social web applications.

Before we get started, first I want to rant a bit. I hate the term User Generated Content. I never use the phrase when talking about this stuff and I'll never use it when writing about it. I consider it a pejorative that reveals a lot about the person saying it. It makes members of your site feel like dutiful robots, crapping content that you convert into cash. The proper (respectful) term is community, and running one is a real challenge. If you're building a community you have to love what you're doing and be the best member of it. It takes great care and patience to create a space others will share and you have to nurture it and reward your best contributors. It's a decidedly human endeavor with few, if any, technical shortcuts. Ok, back to the tips.

Writing community into being on social network sites

Social Networking