What I really want is to read and hear lists curated by the people who really matter around the subject. My friends, likable and awesome though they may be, don't really know much about sand volleyball.

Even if I don't know who he is, what I really REALLY want is to hear what Phil Dalhausser has to say. Why? Because the crowd around the topic has decided that through their actions (visits, retweets, links, whatever) that he's a great person to listen to.

Good questions and reply. I'll try to share the specifics of octopus story then draw some more general lessons and approaches for bottom-up content discovery, curation and acquisition.

Victor Huang, the video creator of the octopus video, shared the video publicly on YouTube. He's explicitly already shown he wants to have it discovered. Perhaps not necessarily for advertising. But he's shown he wants to share.

From there I got in touch with him to inquire about the video, specifically for advertising. He told me that as soon as he watched the video he thought of how it could make a great ad.

He told me he was interested in seeing what Panasonic could offer him. He had also received offers from news agencies to acquire rights to the video but he thought it fit best with Panasonic.

He felt a lot of goodwill to Panasonic because they'd created the camera that had made the video and experience possible. The video was a testament to how awesome the camera worked and how much Victor wanted to get it back.

For him, Panasonic had earned the goodwill by making a great product. The emotional connection existed.

I don't mean to suggest that brands that create good experiences and goodwill from their customers don't also have to compensate those customers when they want to acquire their content for wider use.

Rather, brands that create the goodwill will find opportunities emerging from legions of advocates. The legions want to participate on terms they share with the brands — including credit, awareness and compensation.

So how to brands foster those legions then listen, curate and connect? That's the problem we're working on.

First, barriers of equipment and distribution that kept consumers from being creators dissolved. Now, barriers that keep consumers from being curators for content that may or may not be branded have disappeared.

Yet a common challenge remains — how to match the right people to the right process in the right context to get the right outcomes. But now — such a dizzying array of options exist!

Ad agencies still manage strategy, direction and planning for brands and add a ton of value to the process. They also are consistent because they're paid as shephards of the brand.

So how do they now work with empowered consumers (of all types of motivations, experience and skills) to craft the best outcomes for their clients?

That's a big question whose answer I believe unlocks a new kind of 'people-powered advertising.'

As an example, here's a video shot by a free diver of an octopus stealing his video camera, while it's recording. The diver chases the octopus, recovers his camera and the footage he obtains is incredible.

He uploads the roughly edited footage to YouTube and receive 2.4+ million views. The camera is a new Panasonic model but where is Panasonic in the process?

This is a huge opportunity they have (thus far) completely missed out on.

(Here's the video to see for yourself: http://bit.ly/8YRFs5)

There needs to be an interface point that solves the big problem — bringing together the right people, the right process and the right outcomes to create the right outcomes.

First, barriers of equipment and distribution that kept consumers from being creators dissolved. Now, barriers that keep consumers from being curators for content that may or may not be branded have disappeared.

Yet a common challenge remains — how to match the right people to the right process in the right context to get the right outcomes. But now — such a dizzying array of options exist!

Ad agencies still manage strategy, direction and planning for brands and add a ton of value to the process. They also are consistent because they’re paid as shephards of the brand.

So how do they now work with empowered consumers (of all types of motivations, experience and skills) to craft the best outcomes for their clients?

That’s a big question whose answer I believe unlocks a new kind of ‘people-powered advertising.’

As an example, here’s a video shot by a free diver of an octopus stealing his video camera, while it’s recording. The diver chases the octopus, recovers his camera and the footage he obtains is incredible.

He uploads the roughly edited footage to YouTube and receive 2.4+ million views. The camera is a new Panasonic model but where is Panasonic in the process?

This is a huge opportunity they have (thus far) completely missed out on.

(Here’s the video to see for yourself: http://bit.ly/8YRFs5)

There needs to be an interface point that solves the big problem — bringing together the right people, the right process and the right outcomes to create the right outcomes.