The key to tapping into the user-created content stream is to help
users create and share content. It’s not the content
itself that is important nor that folks want to get famous or have a
large distribution. The key is that folks want to share one-to-few, the
content as the excuse for the conversation, and we should provide the
tools for them to carry on that conversation. That is what services
like TypePad offer that products like MovableType or services like GeoCities could not provide as tools.
Link: MobHappy: Encouraging User-Created Content.
User-created content is a bug buzzterm for the mobile industry, but is the value in the content itself or giving people access to the tools to create it? For instance, the vast majority of personal blogs don’t get a very high readership, but peoples’ enthusiasm in creating them isn’t based upon that.