Most individuals are said to be able to handle somewhere upto/in the region of 150 unique relationships which still offer a two-way communications experience/exchange. Individuals engaging in connections further to this begin to migrate towards the status of a broadcaster, sending out the message en mass, with less of a relationship with the receiving individuals concerned.
Such individual-broadcasters can be found within the community networks of online communities and will enjoy the status of semi-celebrity. Interested media companies already approach such broadcasters with intentions of co-opting such communications with their own branded edge. (see 5 user profiles detailed in ’I told America how to eat Jaffa cakes‘. These people also enjoy networked audiences who propagate their messages along lines of shared interest and over multiple channels within and outside the community (much more to be explored here).
It is also poignant to say that while the trends of UGC are currently in vogue, UGC itself is not the end-game and also inherits a wide number of failings in its implementation and as of yet, not totally understood use. One thing that is clear though is that UGC enabled sites currently boast the fastest ways to garner a massive user-base (the news articles are abundant in this regard).
As content type/themes grow in popularity and consumption they in turn will saturate their participating audience user-base and devalue their own uniqueness. Larger more attractive content types become quickly consumed in the competition and leave what is bizzare, niche and obscure to surface now and then above the crowd. In such an environment it is hard for people to retain qualitative consumption and relationships of longevity and meaning (more on this in the future).
An effective approach will take full advantage of the underlying nature of social networks even as far as new roles they are playing as ways to find content and connect people (moving into search engine territory). These social networks naturally utilize open publishing tools that allow people to connect, create content and share … what is also being referred to as an age of participatory media experiences.
Taking all this so much farther is the development of ubiquitous transfer mechanisms allowing real crossover of these connected and shared experiences from the internet sphere and into the real world. Think mobile devices, universal formats, wireless transfers, mashups all enabled over connected people networks furnished with the means to self-publish, communicate and broadcast.