Customprojects.NET

I do not know if the Gray matter gets used too much or not but I think it is appropriate for this discussion. So there are many interesting things I discuss everyday in my job. I would love to bring those discussions public and get public feedback on them however they are trade secret, and thus will remain private. Some interesting questions are can I talk about the topic but not the details. I think I will play it on the safe side and not mention any of it. However I did have an interesting off work discussion with a co-worker the other day and I am curious to see what others think about this. I know this is off of my normal developer tangents however it is related as this is where the industry is heading / already a part of.
The questions I would like to open for discussion are, what makes user generated content so popular? Why is it accepted is all its forms? Where is it not accepted? What tools are people using to assist in making user generated content, what tools work well, what ones not so well? It doesn’t matter the content, whether it be music, animation, art. I am interested in what works in this area? How much assistance needs to be given before it becomes a self sustaining system?