Fact: Roughly 1% of a community’s users will create content.
What does that mean?
In online communities only 1% contribute to the material. That means that nearly 99% of the community is either merely editing/commenting or are not contributing at all. According to an article in the Guardian, “Earlier metrics garnered from community sites suggested that about 80% of content was produced by 20% of the users, but the growing number of data points is creating a clearer picture of how Web 2.0 groups need to think. For instance, a site that demands too much interaction and content generation from users will see nine out of 10 people just pass by.” This fact prompted me to question who this 1% is. Is there a specific demographic or psychographic that encompasses the 1%? It would be fascinating to determine if there is a parallel between these users. In Citizen Marketers it states that researchers have found this select group to be in their 20s, computer saavy, highly educated, intellectually curious, sociable, and more males than females. This correlation between the 1% users, means there is a biased view online. This 1% limits the diversity of opinions represented on the internet. Much like a bias in media can influence views, so can an internet community bias. For example, the news media portrays crimes frequently on its broadcasts. Because of the excessive amount of crimes broadcasted, individuals are more prone to believe that the crime rate in their area is much higher than it actually is. If we, as an online community are only presented with predispositioned analyses, we are being fed false information.
Guardian Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/jul/20/guardianweeklytechnologysection2
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2 comments:
I think you raise a very interesting question when you ask, " Is there a specific demographic or psychographic that encompasses the 1%?". I'd like to take your question a bit further and see what you think. I'll use myself as an example:
I fit all of the criteria of the "select group" and do contribute web content to places like Youtube and Blogger. In this case i would be part of the 1%. However, I have never contributed to Wikipedia or Curse.com (a free site for sharing video game mods). This is true even though I frequent these sites often. My question would be, "Is this 1% group static throughout the internet, or do different demographics and psychographics tend to fall into the 1% on some sites (or types of sites), and in the 99% on others". Your guess is as good as mine, but I'm curious to hear your take on this.
To address your question, "Is this 1% group static throughout the internet, or do different demographics and psychographics tend to fall into the 1% on some sites (or types of sites), and in the 99% on others" The question you raise is one which I was pondering as well. I believe that possibly the demographics and psychographics of the "1%" are fairly static. However, I believe the interests of the individuals in the "1%" varies greatly. Possibly, the demographics and psychographics of this group outline the broad general data connecting these individuals. With that being true, the interests of these individuals could serve as sub-groups. That is the best response I can conjure up.
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