When it comes to volunteering for Web 2.0 "betas," I find it pretty impossible to stop. I love to try out new things and try to figure out which of the big new things will be the big new thing. But trying out all of these apps, from Digg to Squidoo to Newsvine to whatever is next has brought a thought to mind: Are there enough motivated users out there to sustain this many community created content apps?
I'm finding it exhausting to figure out when to contribute, and to which app. If I find something interesting on the web, do I "Digg" it? Add it to my Squidoo Lens? Add it to Newsvine? If I do any (or all) of the above, do I still blog it? I'm having enough trouble finding the time/motivation to blog as it is!
With Squidoo and Newsvine offering to share in the ad revenue from pages holding my contributions, I'm sure the operators of these sites are banking on the lure of dollars to make me think of posting there first, but for most of the folks who are creating their own content or participating in sites like these, is it the promise of money that motivates them? Nahhh, so few people make more than a few bucks on this stuff that it can't be the motivating factor.
So, after quite a ramble....back to my original question. When will we reach the Web 2.0 saturation point? Are there enough users willing to contribute in a meaningful way to sustain all these startups? In the great words of Van Halen (one of my favorite absurd lyrics, by the way): "Only time will tell if we stand the test of time."
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