Ten years ago, I discovered a new food at an Icelandic breakfast table, Vla — a kind of yogurt you can drink. Packaged in a boxed milk container, Vla was a smooth yogurt that came in several flavors. I loved Vla. It was so unique. I had never tasted anything like it before. Invented by the Dutch, the Icelandic people had been drinking Vla for years… it just hadn’t quite reached the US markets. Several years after tasting Vla, I stumbled upon a similar product in an Israeli convenience store. It was designed to give you a cool boost in the desert heat. Unlike Vla, this product was packaged in individual plastic containers — perfect for any desert traveler on the go. Years after that, I found a similar product called Dannon Light and Fit in an American grocery store. Packaged in a small bottle, shaped like an hourglass, Light and Fit was a smooth yogurt drink designed for athletic people who wanted a fast and healthy snack.

Sometimes the greatest new things aren’t new at all — they’re just reincarnations of old things in new places. I think of that often as I watch our fascination with User Generated Content grow. People love to talk about User Generated Content like it’s a new thing in media — a phenomenon that shocked our industry, becoming an overnight success. But here lately, I’m starting to wonder whether it’s really new at all.

Consider reality TV shows like American Idol. On Idol, everyday people get to compete for fame. Everyday people create most of the shows’ content. And even if they aren’t brave enough to get in front of the cameras, everyday people decide on what they see by casting votes. There’s a TON of participation on Idol — more votes were cast for that show last year than any presidential election.  And there are so many other shows like it. Survivor, The Real World and even Jerry Springer are no exception. In each, most of the content is generated by the user. Radio talk shows like Howard Stern work the same way. People love to call in and give their perspectives. And that’s the show — real people giving real perspectives. One time, I was listening to an Atlanta radio station where some guy in his mid 20’s was planning a special date… with his step sister. They’d been separated before college but were recently reunited. The guy thought it might be wrong to date his stepsister… but in his words, “She’s smokin’ hot!” You can’t imagine how many people called in with their two cents on that. That show was so funny I missed my exit on the way to work.

User Generated Content is a new phenomenon for the Internet, but is it really new to media? Or is it just a reincarnation of a very old concept – one that has been successful in so many other media forms? Some would say that Reality TV and radio talk show participants have less control over content when compared to Internet contributors. After all, producers can modify tapes and recordings to give shows their own spin. But ultimately, don’t web administrators sensor online contributions in basically the same way?

Every time a new and successful idea is introduced online, I ask myself whether it’s new at all. It’s usually not. A single good concept can be reborn in so many new places — becoming an overnight success time and time again. I’m not a fortune teller, but I believe I’ve got the power predict the next big thing in any new media form. The past and the present are my crystal ball.