Last October's move by Google to pay $1.65 Billion to acquire YouTube, the video sharing website that allows users to upload, view and share video clips, demonstrates how quickly the concept of user generated content (UGC) has moved from modest beginnings to a key place in the new-media sector.

Other predominant examples of Web sites based in UGC include the social networking sites Facebook and MySpace (queried by News Corp in July 2005) the photo sharing site Flickr (bought by Yahoo in March 2005) and the reunion service Friends Reunited (bought by ITV in December 2005).

And UGC is achieving similar importance in the mobile phone secitor, by 2011, the world wide market fir mobile communities and UGC will reach 13.1 Billion from 3.45 billion today, according to a new report from Informa Telecoms and Media and the Mobile Entertainment Forum based in London.

But the rise in UGC - facilitated by accessible and affordable new technologies, including digital video, blogging, podcasting, mobile phone photography and wikis - has an impact beyond its economic importance.

Among other things, it is encouraging a new form of citizen journalism, For example the BBC has set up a UGC team on a pilot basis in April 2005 with three staff. This was made permanent and expanded following the London bombings of July 2005 and the fire at Buncefield Oil storage depot in Hertfordshire in December the same year, when thousands of viewers contributed to the news stories by sending eye whiteness photographs taken on their mobile phones using multimedia messaging service technology.

Similar technologies can be used to share opinions. In the U.S., mobile video site Veeker, which allows users to share "video peeks" or "veeks", last month teamed up with Youth Noise, a Web based social network. Together they launched a free service designed to allow young people to use video-enabled phones to contribute opinions and impressions during the US mid term elections on November 7th.The service, called Veek the Vote 2006, invited users to capture and share happenings at polling stations, rallies, protests, parties and any other election-related activities or events.

Election coverage not so long ago was pure television," says Rodger Raderman, Veekers Chief Marketing & Product Officer in San Francisco." Very recently, it became more decentralized by the blogsphere.Veek the Vote 2006 carries this trend a step further, giving young Americans the ability to instantly communicate their election day experiences with video, using nothing more that the mobile phones in their pockets. Over 750 mobile videos were uploaded to veek the Vote from around the US in just seven days.

Mike Short, Vice President of Research and Development at o2 PLC in Slough, UK notes that these information networks can have a powerful impact. He points to the Philippines, where opponents if former president Joseph Estrada famously used the mobile phone short message service to help organize the popular revolt that drove him from office in January 2001.

But the audience can also turn these tools against the service itself. Last May, British folk singer Billy Bragg removed his songs from MySpace and complained that the sites terms and conditions implied a claim that any content on the site automatically became the sites property. A month later MySpace changed its term of service to clarify that its own license was nonexclusive, meaning contributors were free to license their content to others as well.

UGC is also being used in fundraising initiatives such as Listen, created by U.K. based Tribute Third Millennium, Ltd. and due to launch next year. Tribute has produced nine of the world's latest entertainment events such as The Wall concert staged in Berlin in 1990 to celebrate reunification of Germany. Listen is a global media campaign, funded from commercial sources such as sponsorship, which will reach 500 million people in more than 60 countries. It will harness the power of 60 creative artists to create multimedia campaign that will highlight the needs of the world's most disadvantaged children and works across television, radio, Web, mobile and print. Listen asks its audience to listen to the needs of children, take responsibility and help," says Tony Hollingsworth, Tribute's London based CEO."In the first year, Listen aims to raise 92 Million from the public for this cause, largely through a global telethon. By the end of its fourth year, it should have raised $450 million".

Mobile and Web will play a crucial role in the campaign, which is designed to simulate the public to get involved and develop community of "Listeners" - those interested in the campaign and/or the problems of the children. Central to this is a series of UGC promotions that invites the public to contribute videos, films, art and stories and offers the possibility of winning the top prizes including positions alongside the stars in Listen's global television and radio broadcasts.

Mo Touman, innovation consultant at BT Group PLC in Ipswich U.k., argues that the UGC technologies eliminate the need for publishers, which has traditionally acted as gateways for content and offer a free hand to the public to produce and share materials." The quality of such content will probably decrease as more and more people learn to use the media and the majority of subjects are likely to be of low value", he says." However, the openness could create a new breed if entrepreneurial freelance content developers."

He points to the example of SeeMeTV run bu the Hutchison 3G UK Ltd., the mobile operator which operates under the brand name 3.This service allows users with video enabled phones to upload self created content that there subscribers can download for 10 pence (19 cents) to 50 pence per clip - with 100% of the price going to the originator. The service, launched in October 2005, attracted more that 100,000 uploads and 12 million downloads in its first 12 months, generating more than 250,000 pounds ($483,000) for contributors.

Other examples of freelance content include British singer Sandi Thorn who last February and March used the internet to distribute 21 performances from the basement of her flat, generating a wave of media interest that led to her signing a contract with SONY.

Lubna Dejani, CEO of Stratemerge Inc. a New Jersey based technology and business service provider, notes that moves towards providing UGC that other users can pay for tap into basic human needs." Everybody needs to trade in some way," she argues." Nobody is self sustaining. They need to be in a community."

But Marco Menato, Vice President for EMEA and Latin America at RealNetworks Inc. in London, says that we may have to wait for the next stage of Web development (known as Web 3.0) to see the true value of UGC networks engage beyond the "self indulgence" of current services." Where this generation is all about 'me', we may find true creativity and usefulness being characterized by the next generation."

And Morgan Holt, director of media innovation at Hutchinson 3G in Middlehead, U.K., warns that only a minority of users will be interested in producing their own content for the foreseeable future." What UGC offers is an easier route to market for budding creatives.But at the punter end, my experience is that while 10% of an audience love doing, 90% prefer watching. That's true in newspapers, radio shows, television and elsewhere. I don't believe it's going to invert in the next decade."

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