Porn 2.0 - User (de)Generated Content

Big gerfuffle over at TechCrunch after they reviewed Eroshare, a new startup porno user submitted picture site.

This surprised me for 2 reasons:

(i) That they reviewed this one at all...Porno sites were doing "Web 2.0" at least 5 years ago...nekkid models for Flickr, MySpace and YouTube existed long before Web 2.0. This one is very much more of the same so either the TechCrunch people don't look at pornsites (from an academically analytical point of view that is) or it is true that claiming you are "2.0" allows very old mutton to be flogged as lamb.

(ii) That the people who commented were so shocked - shocked, I tell you - read the comments, if porn shocks you some of this will scare you more! Porn, like spam, is a feature of the 'Net - what do you think drove many of those early chat boards, websites and web hosters - cup cake recipes?

In fact porn is quite useful for 'Net predictions on future developments. It is typically a very early (ab?)user of new technology. I am told that Flash (now there's a name for you) was heavily driven in its early days by pornographs. It drove VHS adoption over Betamax, over two thirds of mail on France's Minitel proto-internet was "pinkmail", and I'll bet the pre-ISP AOL and CompuServe had a lot more of it than they ever admitted to.

This is because, no matter what you may think of it, a lot of your fellow humans like it. They may not admit it, but they will certainly pay for it - a lot - which of course allows it to fund use of new media far more than people relying on more acceptable business models. This means it is invariably an early adopter - and thus, because of its size, driver - of the next set of technologies, trends etc

But I doubt if this site is where the Next 'Net will be found - .

No, for predictive purposes its probably far more useful to understand what porn is doing in newly emerging areas such as virtual worlds (eg Second life), Mobile Media, Web TV and so on. In fact, there is a wonderful comment on the Volokh Conspiracy:

From woodcuts to the printing press, photography, motion pictures, the Brownie automatic (8mm), video tape, dvd and now instant downloading, porn has been the leading indicator of the Next Big Thing. With the track record it's got, why hasn't somebody on Wall Street set up a fund to invest where porn is going? Maybe there's someone among VC readers who can get the ball rolling, and count me in as an investor!

The rise of unethical investment?

Postscript......GigaOm has written a similar argument here too thus I predict that Wii is a winner Blu Ray will lose to HD-DVD.

Post Postscript - nice little BBC video on porn - tech here