Being a fan of The Shins since…well, perhaps even before Zach Braff, I found this one really interesting:

Working with CurrentTV, The Shins commissioned concert-goers to pull out their phones, digital cameras, and videocams to record the performance of their upcoming single and upload it onto a website. Over 200 did so, and the result is great: every submission was added, and you can see the result here.

What’s great about this user-generated content, and what distinguishes it from the rest that I’ve seen, is how incredibly open and accessible this was. We’re not talking user-submissions of HD-quality video from their expensive prosumer cameras. We’re talking about using technology that nearly everyone has access to. While this may affect “quality” of the video images themselves, it adds a great dimension, in that EVERYONE can help to create something.

This wasn’t a user-generated contest, it was user-generated collaboration. And I think that, more so than the “one winner” framework that the industry is working with now, is they key to future success.

Just think about how reinforcing something like this is.

Technorati Tags: The Shins, user generated, CurrentTV, prosumer, collaboration, open access