user generated content: tools for making the crap, great

10/28/2006 11:59:00 PM
At last week's Pop-Tech, Will Wright talked about taping into the huge base of user creativity to populate the new gaming world that will soon be Spore.

What interested him most of all was how do you help turn people who are crap "creatives", into better ones?

He even had a nice chart that showed the distribution of artistic quality.

Wright's answer was to create smart tool sets that give people the aid of creative intelligence, so they can make better things.

As we consider engaging the user more and more in the marketing process, there's going to be a need for more "tools" to allow them to express themselves creatively.

So instead of the giant "free-for-all" that currently exists, with the Darwinian process of the "cream rising to the top", perhaps these tools will allow for input from a more representative sample.

A couple of years ago when we were doing research to develop Converse's user created content program, a very smart teen girl told us. "I have lots of ideas, but I have no idea how to make a film."

Creating tools and formats that give people a say and getting them creatively engaged will be the secret to making the "Direct Economy" a reality.
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