The 1% rule
The 1% rule is theoretical internet concept that states that of the whole population of internet users that view the content only 1% or less is actually creating it. 9% is making comments and the rest 90% is idle just consuming the content. These numbers, though, apply only to quantity and are far away from quality. So what about the quality?
Slovenian economist Mico Mrkaic also introduced an interesting concept that statest that these are two types of a public/online debate. One is reserved only for experts. There can participate only people that have specific, deep knowledge about a certain area of interest. These debates are usually constructive or at least we see a clash of opposite points of view. Where on the other hand, the non-expert debates, like public issues, in which can participate everyone that has 5 mins of spare time, are *always* brought down to a level of biggest jerk in the group of creators/commenters of the content. It's like a weakest link in the chain concept.
Furthermore, majority of that 1% - creators and 9% - participators (commenters, raters,...) are usually people that have the most time on their hands. Being so means also that they have the least quality insights which come from people that do the real thing but also least time to create content. This brings down to a conclusion that any unedited stream of user-contributed content will be dominated by low quality material.
Why would that be wrong? For example if you look at the most viewed video of all time on Youtube it's a guy that shakes his ass around and claims that to be the evolution of dance. IMHO the secret here lies in the fact that most people are just not that smart/intelligent/eager to consume quality added value content. Because they have to think. Because they're lazy. Because the school system is fu**ed. Or as Vesna Vuk Godina said: "Critical mind is a curse. It's not a God's gift. God's gift is a stupidity. Stupid people are happy." They need plain, low quality content that makes them able to consume and participate.
The funny part here is that we also like to talk about the abundancy of content. Can you imagine how it would be like if the percent of content creators would be higher? I believe that in the near future technologies will solve this issues by bringing each of us the most relevant content, personalised, consolidated. Each will have an absolute control on what he or she will be consuming. This kind of democracy will cluster together similar types and quality levels of content and bring them to the right people.
