Content creation skills are widespread

I presented yesterday in London at the conference of the Learning and Skills Group on the subject of rapid e-content creation. As part of my session I asked the group to rate their proficiency in each of these skills:

1. Using a digital camera
2. Editing photos
3. Using a camcorder
4. Editing movies
5. Writing textual content
6. Laying out textual content
7. Creating graphics
8. Building presentations
9. Recording audio
10. Editing audio

The rating scale was as follows:

• Five stars - professional
• Four stars - enthusiast
• Three stars - improver
• Two stars - beginner
• One star - virgin

I also asked them to rate the ability of their children (or children they knew) and their direct reports.

I expected a small minority of the audience (predominantly Gen X and boomers) to have reasonable content creation skills, whereas their children and perhaps some of their younger direct reports would have higher ratings, given their greater experience with technology generally and with web 2.0 tools in particular.

I was right about the latter - yes, Gen Y and the Millennials have these skills in bucket loads. Where I was surprised was that the overwhelming majority of the 100+ audience rated themselves three stars or above in at least five skills areas - some in all ten.

My conclusion: content creation skills are in relative abundance. Provide employees with the tools, the opportunity and the means for content distribution and they are capable of delivering.