Wow. I just read over on the Micro Persuasion blog that Amazon seems to be experimenting with user-editable wikis for product listings. If true, the trick will be in convincing individuals that adding information to product wikis is worth it. If enough do, however, this could seriously change the way many of us make future purchase decisions.

I would imagine that a lot of product managers are quaking in their boots at the idea. Certainly there is the danger that competitors may sabotage each other’s wikis, planting rumors and probing at weak points, but the bigger issue willl revolve around user input. Suddenly complaint desks will sit out in the open for all the world to see. Diplomacy, transparency, and a thick skin may turn out to be much more important qualifications for the job than a PhD in spin.

Too bad the wikis won’t be in place in time for holiday shopping. I’d very much appreciate hearing from other customers that the interface on the camera I’m thinking of sending my mother is too complicated. Like all wikis, however, it will take some time and a great deal of input before the database is truly useful and reliable. Maybe they’ll be ready when I buy her that home gene-splicer next year.

“…the printer is the only product of civilization necessary to the existence of free men.”

I couldn’t help it. The interface was so clean. A single entry box, a la Google. I typed in the URL for this blog, hit the return key, and the Web 2.0 Validator promptly returned a score. This blog gets points for being in public beta, referring to Flickr, del.icio.us, mash-ups and, of course, Web 2.0. I got dinged for not being built on Ruby on Rails and for not integrating Google Maps API or a Bloglines blogroll. Also, no mentions of VCs, RDF or Semantic Web

The validator has tongue at least partially in cheek, but the mechanisms behind the 30 Second Rule effort are interesting. For one thing, the rules against which sites are gauged change daily as new criteria are pulled at random from user submissions. To submit your Web 2.0 rule, simply bookmark the validator URL and type your entry into the “notes” field. That, in itself, is a pretty cool implementation.

For the record, dispatchesfromblogistan.com scored 6 out of 16. I may have to try again tomorrow. No telling if the above mention of venture capital will count toward anything then, but that’s pretty much always a turkey shoot.

A new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that fully half of all American teenagers have authored and posted online content. Besides original writings, photographs, artwork, and videos, many of the teens felt quite comfortable remixing their own creations with content found online.

While a mere 7% of American adults author their own blog, 19% of all teens now blog. Perhaps most interesting, 25% of girls between 15 and 17 are blogging. Also interesting is the fact that the number of teens who admit to downloading files illegally (30%) is now matched by the number saying they’ve purchased music or other online entertainment files (30%).

Media distributors might want to take note: Kids are proving more than willing to purchase content if it’s not force-fed pap.