Mike Butcher - mbites

Thanks Sam and Dennis, good points all. I guess what we are seeing here is - dare I say it - a tipping point where a new generation of digital natives, who might have blogged in the past on the open web, are starting their online careers inside Facebook et al. Having invested a lot of time and effort in building their social capital inside these networks, it is going to make less and less sense for them to put their efforts into a place which is more "open", like the blogosphere. If you already have 300 mates on Facebook, why bother trying to reproduce that traffic and capital outside? Sure, "UGC" still exists, but put inside social networks it is no longer the kind other media entities or non-members can easily access. Sure, we may get another LonelyGirl15 or Geriatric1927 (the now classic YouTube examples) appearing on Facebook video, but does that "mean" the same thing as someone who produced content out on the more open Web? Especially since Facebook's terms and conditions, rights restrictions etc are so draconian? Perhaps the question is immaterial if they get traffic? I don't know the answer but I suspect the big test of this will be when there is a smash hit user on Facebook who, after garnering a million "friends" realises all the content they generated is invisible to the rest of the Net and not owned by them...