Centralized is to Distributed as Editorial is to UGC

Here's a sort of half-baked thought that's been percolating in my head for the last few days:

In terms of scalability, going from a centralized website to a distributed, widget powered service, is sort of like the jump from editorial content to user generated content.

I've said for years that there's no way that editorial content can scale like user generated content.  Armies of unpaid volunteers will outproduce handfuls of employees every time. 

I believe that widgets are going to enable a similar jump in scalability and growth potential over centralized, destination sites.  If reach and eyeballs are what you're after, the clock is ticking for you to build a distributed presence for your service.