The founders of Bitstrips.com are passionate about user-generated content and comic strips. This week they launched a do-it-yourself comic strip service that garnered much deserved attention on the trade show floor at SXSW Interactive.

Bitstrips.com is an example of user-generated content at it’s best. I mean, who doesn’t at some point in life wish they could illustrate comics or draw? Taking an aspirational skill and making it fun and social for the masses is a winning strategy as proven by the likes of Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

Users are able to customize an avatar for their account using the comic design tools and there are all the social networking tools we come to expect like friends, comments, ratings, etc. They put in some cool peer production features like shareable characters and the option to allow other users to edit your strips.

It didn’t take long for users to discover the peer production functionality. BA from Bitstrips created a Mark Zuckerberg character for this hilarious strip which was then used by Wired in their Twitter mash-up comic (featuring a snarky tweet by yours truly).

As with many user-generated content services, Bitstrips content rights are still evolving. Their current Terms of Service provides that users retain the rights to content they post (such as character dialog) but only grants a revocable license for non-commercial use of content created using the Bitstrips tools. During SXSW they told me they were talking to Creative Commons about a more robust licensing structure.

The “What Teens Want Online” panel consisted of one adult and a half dozen teens talking about their online and mobile habits.

The panel started out with the young panelists listing the websites they like to use and why. The common theme was personal interests (finding music), personal expression (profiles), and news (gaming, music).

“I don’t really use that avatar stuff,” said one teen panelist.

The panel reinforced a trend I’ve seen elsewhere that teens are not a rich demographic for virtual worlds.

Runescape and GAIA were the only specific virtual worlds/MMOs liked by the panelists, but it was clear they don’t use them much. Zwinky was mentioned by two panelists as being dull. Pay to play was a common objection to other worlds and games.

It was clear that the teens do not use social software for broadening their network of friends. While MySpace and FaceBook were ubitquitous, specialized social networks like Last.fm, iLike.com, Flickr, Twitter and Photobucket are not popular. When I asked a few of the panelists afterwards about these sites, only a few knew of Photobucket and made limited use of it.

On the mobile front, there was consensus that instant messaging has been replaced with unlimited SMS messaging. Aside from SMS, panelists use their phones for wallpapers, ringtones, games and photo sharing.