A new survey released by Web audience measurement firm Hitwise has shown an interesting new spin on the recent Web 2.0 hype - it seems this new generation of web maestros are less creatives, and more voyeurs - with the trend being far less participatory than commonly assumed.The vast majority of visitors to these sites (likened to the traditional 'couch potato') are voyeurs who like to watch rather than create.

A tiny 0.16 percent of visits to Google's top video-sharing site, YouTube, are by users seeking to upload video for others to watch. Similarly, only two-tenths of one percent of visits to Flickr, a popular photo-editing site owned by Yahoo Inc., are to upload new photos, the in depth study showed. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia edited by 'Joe Public', is the one exception cited in the Hitwise study, with 4.6 percent of all visits to Wikipedia pages are to edit entries on the site. However, despite relatively low-user involvement, visits to Web 2.0-style sites have spiked 668 percent in two years.

Residents of the Argentinean city Buenos Aires, will be choosing their new Governor this June, and will be treated to a new media technique being debuted to entice voters. In order to reach the young, trendy and ever elusive electorate, the political advisers have turned to the web 2.0 revolution, and in particular the UGC site YouTube to help improve the image of the main candidates; Mauricio Macri, Daniel Filmus , Jorge Telerman and Elisa Carrió.

Through YouTube, Argentinean voters can see TV programs clips, candidates talking with neighbours and party campaign launchings. The emphasis of the campaign is to make good use of the interactive element of USG/social networking mediums, and though only on a small scale, it shows how usually traditional industries such as politics, are heading online to target marketing savvy consumers.
Below are links to some examples of recent postings from the campaign on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgZr0YCh4AQ&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ebaspotting%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2F

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0dubvv0RwE&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ebaspotting%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2F

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwYBgaI4k4c&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ebaspotting%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2F

The use of video clips has been the talk of the town, especially with the likes of YouTube going from a cult hobby to a multi million pound business pretty much over night. However, businesses are increasingly using the format for their internal communications. Though slightly resembling the George Orwell novel in theory, many companies with large and/or dispersed workforce are finding video clips the perfect way to communicate internal messaging, proving more exciting than traditional ‘push’ communications, including newsletters, slide presentations and emails.

An example of an agency now specialising in this sort of online video streaming is Meat Team in Los Angeles. This agency helps companies develop an internal TV network that airs on a regular schedule over the client’s existing IT infrastructure. ‘Internal TV’ features employee generated video programming to help roll out initiatives, reinforce company culture, or share best practices. Social networking features are also incorporated to allow employees to tag episodes, add comments and search a library of archived stories - see http://www.meatteam.tv

We at markettiers4dc are also finding ipTV technology is aiding internal communications. Our webchats.tv service is used by brands such as BBC WorldWide for their CEO John Smith to chat to staff live over the web who log on from both the UK and US to pose questions, the transcript of which is then instantlly made available after the event. However, more interactive than that is the tool we launched in January under our research arm, Opinion Matters, called OMLive! which has revolutionised the traditional focus group by allowing a moderater to be seen live on video over the web whilst questions appear on the page which can be single-punch, multi-punch or open. Responses are instantly analysed in our studio gallery, whilst observers can see what's going on from anywhere in the world, which of course, as it's broacast of the web, means employees can take part from any location in the world too, so long as they have broadband of course. See http://www.opinionmatters.co.uk/omlive.html for more information

Though a case study amongst many, it was quite amusing to see this example of user generated content power in its simplest form. It has been mentioned a lot in media circles how large media giants such as The Guardian Unlimited are allowing readers to comment and interact with features/journalists online. Here we see the David and Goliath situation when a reader pulled up Reuters recently on an editorial mistake which had undoubtably made a few people blush:

Here is the reader's email on the blog along with Reuter's response:

READER: I just watched your video about the “Chavez-Bush: a tale of two leaders” where Reuters informs that Sao Paulo is the capital of Brazil. Please note that the capital of Brazil is Brasilia and not Sao Paulo.

REUTERS BLOG: Yikes, that is embarrassing. We took the piece down: GBU Editor

http://blogs.reuters.com/2007/03/12/the-capital-of-brazil-is/

As well as offering numerous options for brands and consumer entertainment, convergence is also helping local communities.

The unlikely London borough of Lewisham attracted a lot of attention last summer by introducing a service where consumers could take pictures of local nuisances (left rubbish, graffiti, broken windows etc) on their mobile phones and then upload them onto the Lewisham Borough website. The council would then post under the image details of when and how the problem would be fixed, keeping the consumer up to date:

http://www.lovelewisham.org/Public/Images.aspx

This sort of interaction is now quickly materialising all over the world. The local government of Amsterdam's Geuzenveld district just launched an online tool that lets people pinpoint neighbourhood problems on Google Maps. After filling out an online form, a marker is placed on a Google map of the area along with information on how the complaint is being dealt with:

http://mor.amsterdam.asp4all.nl/MORGeuzenveld.aspx

The district is counting on the service to save time and money - a street lantern that's out of order will lead to numerous calls and emails to the district. Once people get used to checking the map to see if someone else has already reported an issue, the amount of complaints that simple waste council time will decrease. Also residents will potentially feel more involved now that they are able to track how their complaint is being followed up, and that local maintenance crews will be motivated to keep the map as empty as possible, solving most issues within 2 days.
New York will also be up-ing it's game later this year with a new addition to it's 911 service. The city's police call centres will be able to receive camera-phone pictures and videos taken by residents and visitors, straight from the scene of a crime:

http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/