User generated Alaska

User generated content or consumer generated media (CGM)… has definitely arrived in the Last Frontier. User generated content is nothing brand new, especially with the huge success of big players such as YouTube, GoogleVideo and my favorite up-and-comerBrightcove. The impact of this media is finally reaching the old-media groups. It seems everyone wants a piece of your mind (and the free content they can use to capture an audience for their own gain).

Who are the players in Alaska and what are they doing with user generated content? Most of the organizations trying their hand at CGM are the traditional media outlets who are concerned about their futures and the travel and tourism industry folks trying to keep pace with the “digital age”.

Anchorage Daily News
www.adn.com
The “daily disappointment” as some have so eloquently nicknamed the largest newspaper in Alaska has been trying to attract users to submit their videos for quite a while. So far, most of the content has been sub par and generally boring videos of little kids singing camping songs and my favorite 4 seconds of life-wasting video… two guys, sticks and bush. Thank you ADN for providing such valuable information to readers everywhere, God knows I’m rushing down to renew my subscription today!

The 49th Reel
www.49threel.com
On a positive note, the Anchorage Convention and Visitor’s Bureau have put together a considerably better collection of useful content (and decent production quality). http://www.anchorage.net/FilmFest

UA My Way
www.uamyway.net
I’ve been working with Nerland Agency to develop some new ideas for the University of Alaska. Using Brightcove’s really slick Studio tool, we (at Popchair) created a user generated campaign for students interested in attending UA to upload their own videos. The videos will be judged for quality and five creative people will be receiving a one-year tuition at the University. It’s been tough getting the word out, but I really think these sort of contests can have merit. So, if you want a free year of UA tuition, get over there and upload a video now!

In closing
I’m sure there are better uses of our time than creating idiotic videos to upload to the Net…but for now it seems to be all the rage. If anything, it certainly gives people a creative outlet (for good or for bad) and creates yet another way for advertisers, media people and websites another way to attempt to monetize everyone else’s content. If you know of any other great user generated media sites in Alaska, drop me a line or leave comments below!

/kk