

Fame/Reputation building seems key motivating factor for user uploaded content. - ranparas
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Marketing/Digital_Marketing/How_companies_can_make_the_most_of_user-generated_content

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steffon
I completely agree with this article. And a startup that could efficiently tap
into people's hunger for fame and recognition on a broad basis could become a
destination for user generated content that far outdoes current web 2.0
offerings.

"We observed that users cite a variety of reasons for posting content online--
chief among them, a hunger for fame, the urge to have fun, and a desire to
share experiences with friends"

What's interesting about the notion of reputation and fame is that, for a user
to feel like they belong or are "having fun" or a held in esteem by a group of
people, that group needs to be a compatible reference group meaning, they need
to have things in common (this idea was touched upon in the article "The
Problem with Social News" <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50015> and the
discussion of homophily, meaning loosely birds of a feather flock together).
For examples, entrepreneurs are much more likely to be concerned about the
opinions of other entrepreneurs than other people. I take more seriously the
music suggestions of people that have the same tastes as me (obvious, right?).

So if everyone on a site could be plugged into a compatible reference group,
the fame and reputation motivation could be leveraged across much larger
populations of users, not just the ones that want to be, for example, on the
top viewed videos on youtube. Each user would be compared against those users
with which they have common interests, so the idea of having a reputation
becomes more salient, so people spend more time contributing, and the content
becomes better for everyone at an individual level. Lots of sites are able to
harness the reputation motive on subject specific areas (like Y Hacker news),
but no site has tried to harness the motivation for reputation across all
interest groups. Definitely email me if this interests you because it
fascinates me and I have plans to build such a site.

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pg
Register now to read this article? What are they thinking?

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ivankirigin
It's pretty common for business research companies to sell studies for lots of
money. McKinsey, Forrester, et al. use their reputation to sell content, and
the content propagates reputation.

