UGC (the remix version)
On its face, it's just a list of restaurants. All it accomplished, however, is a list in itself.
My paper's 50 best restaurants list, unveiled in countdown fashion last week, introduced readers to our new dining critic, drew visitors to our website, sparked conversation on social media, let us play in emerging spaces, recruited text alert subscribers, showcased our (relatively) recently revived entertainment tabloid and reaffirmed the online and offline authority of our brand. Of course, it wouldn't have done any of this if it weren't engaging. One of the most revealing symptoms of that engagement was an unsolicited user contribution. A reader saw value in our list to the degree he felt compelled to add to that value — "Cognitive Surplus" and "Spreadable Media" economics in action.
Over lunch, the reader used free online tools, mostly Google Refine, to create a data-rich, mobile friendly remix. His presentation does not include any information ours does not, but it repackages the content nicely.
Granted, this isn't from just any reader — it's from EveryBlock co-founder Paul Smith. But its lessons apply broadly: Strong user-generated content doesn't have to be new content, and, often it is generated spontaneously, outside of traditional UGC channels.
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