The Observer- Sunday March 11th 2007

"Writers who work for nothing: it's a licence to print money" - John Naughton

In contemporary society digital democracy has become the latest phenomenon. At the simple touch of a button, society is able to transfer text, images and video footage to various media outlets such as the Internet, TV newsrooms, and magazines. This can be done through a mobile phone, an email or even through your TV set.
For example, the Cumbria train accident on the 24th February which involved the derailment of a Virgin express train heading towards Glasgow. The accident occurred in a remote spot in the darkness in terrible weather conditions which would have made it almost impossible for any member of teh public to have witnessed the crash.
Yet despite this, shortly after the accident an image had appeared on the BBC News Online website. Underneath the image were the words: "Send pictures to yourpics@bbc.co.uk". This is an example of user-generated content.

The results of the digital universe by technology consultancy IDC were released last week. Authors were amazed by the figures that were revealed. A statement reported that 'last year, enogh digital information- from emails and blogs to mobile-phone calls, photos and TV signals- was generated to fill a dozen stacks of hardback books stretching from the earth to the sun'.

Last year, the world's 'total digital content' totalled up to 161 billion gigabytes, which is the equivalent of filling 161 billion iPod Shuffles.

The reserachers subsequently predicted that by the year 2010 over 70 per cent of all the digital content in the world will have been created by consumers. This comes as great news to the manufacturers of hard drives and various other storage devices. However, what it means to the rest of society is unclear. Optimists view the situation as a great release of contemporary human creativity.

Alternatively, cynics view the situation in a different light. They see it as living proof that giving blogging or movie-editing software to the average individual is ultimately pointless. They argue that the users do not encompass the knowledge essential to support this phenomenom of user-generated content.