Is There a 1% Rule for Content Contribution to Websites?
An article from The Guardian Unlimited regarding content creation vs. commenting on the web has drawn some traction on Digg:
digg - The 1% Rule
It's an emerging rule of thumb that suggests that if you get a group of 100 people online then one will create content, 10 will "interact" with it (commenting or offering improvements) and the other 89 will just view it.
This seems like a very loose rule of thumb, since the forms of interaction can vary tremendously from one web site to another. I'd consider Wikipedia to have one of the highest bars for content creation or editing since contributors need some level of expertise in the topic they're editing. On the low end, Digg users can contribute to the value of the community with a simple click. Do both actions follow the 1% rule? What about the various contributions an
Amazon user can make to product pages, including reviews, ratings, tagging, wikis, etc.? Each contribution varies widely in work load and expertise required.
Measure, create your own benchmark, then work to improve it rather than relying on such a vague rule of thumb.
