Greg Goodfried talks about User Generated Content Social Networking

This video is dated Mar 14, 2007, but it contains a lot of insight into how the Creators think:

Greg talks about how LG15 got started: it's like Buffy or Dawsons Creek meets X Files

Greg talks about how to monetize UGC and said they made money off UGC videos on Revver.

The production budget is $40,000/month

Will there be premium accounts on LG15.com where you would get an e-mail address and the ability to go to events? Does that mean we would have to pay for events?

He does not see UGC content as a sustaining model because it's boring.

How do you get people to sit on the site 8 hours a day: give them UGC to watch, a wiki to write and chat.

LG15 is a social network built around an entertainment property. The motto is every fan is a character.

One word that sums up their production is interaction. If they didn't have fans talking back to their characters the show would stop.

They don't intertwine the derivatives into the main story.

He talks about developing non lg15 shows that have TV components. For example, you watch the Internet show during the week and the TV show on Friday night.



http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5879361139375985366
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immo1 said...
There were a lot of things in this presentation that really surprised me and others that confirmed what I had suspected. In terms of User Generated Content, I was glad to see Greg acknowledge that it was something that made the site "sticky" and brings new people to the show but then he goes on to say it's not integrated and it's more like a creative outlet for the hardcore fan. He says that if one word sums up the production it's interaction but there is no interaction in regard to user generated videos if they are never acknowledged somehow by the canon story. I wish I would have seen this back in March.
-immo1

Anonymous (this posted ends imho, which probably means "in my humble opinion") and should not be confused with immo) said...
If UGC is so boring, how come it keeps people glued to their site 8 hours a day?

It's the LG15 stuff that's boring imho.

impulse said...
Cool! I'm happy to learn UGC content is boring. Still they made money out of it. I wonder if the UGC creators made anything. Well, why am I talking, what do I know, uh?

Greg said...
hey impulse and immortal. you have to take my comments in context. i was in a room with a bunch of advertisers and tv people. we are always trying to defend ourselves and our show as professionally produced content that has value just like content produced by big media. I do not think that any of the fan content generated on this site is boring - to the contrary, I watch it everyday.

I think random UGC showing parents feeding their babies or cats chasing dogs is boring. I think the term UGC is too broad and I don't think that what either of you are doing is really UGC. You are both writers and filmmakers creating videos that have narratives, storylines, and arcs. What I meant was that all the random stuff on YouTube gets boring after a while and it is not a business model.

Hope that clarifies things. Sorry if my words offended anyone.

immo1 said...
Greg: I wasn't referencing the boring comment. You have to defend yourselves as professional content and we have to defend ourselves against being depicted as exactly how you categorized us which is essentially fanfic.
-immo1

impulse said...
Greg,

just a bad choice of words I guess. You know first hand the amount of work (and money) it takes to write, film and produce a show on the long run. We also have to defend ourselves to make it possible. We are here because we are huge fans of LG15. We do this because you've changed the way to approach entertainment on internet and we want the monster you've created to live and become even bigger than what it already is. In my mind, the LG15 experience is not just about the Breeniverse and the Lonelygirl series. It's also about KateMordern, it's also about the Flock, it's about all the original series that can spring up out of it. I pretentiously think we provide really good original content to the fans alongside your series. In fact, I don't know anything that could be compared to what is currently happening on the LG15 website, really. The UGC here is truly unique. I hope you know that. You took the lead in this and put yourself in a position where you can defend and promote UGC. Do it!
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Note that in part it looks like Greg was responding to "imho" and not immo.