Production + Usage = Produsage

Produsage is the concept of being both a user and producer of digital content (Bruns, 2007)

This new and profound concept is not actually new, and this idea was coined in the early 1970's by Alvin Toffler who prophesised a future where a consumer would also be a producer and a producer would be a consumer (Bruns, 2007). 

There are four characteristics of produsage.

These characteristics are explained in detail below.
Open Participation - One important feature of produsage is that contributors openly participate with each other to create the content which ensures the content goes under constant evaluations and developments (Bruns, 2008).

Fluid Heterarchy and Holoptism - Continuing on from open participation, we have fluid heterarchy and holoptism which allows an equal balance of participants which forms a cohesive discussion to help produsage sites function. There is no hierarchy but leaders are chosen based on merits which is only probationary in a sense (Bruns, 2007). 

Palimpsestic artifacts and granularity - In support of the previous two features, this characteristic identifies that content is often unfinished or in other words raw. There is constant need to improve upon this and requires a coordinated collaboration.  By having the feature of palimpsest, it allows users to repeatedly add to information already provided. The palimpsestic feature allows users of diverse backgrounds and areas to contribute (Bauwens, n.d). 

Common Property, Individual rewards - The last feature relates to participants receiving rewards and recognition of their input otherwise it will most likely halt the production of produsage sites. By making content common property, each contributor is able to receive rewards. Not normally monetary but it is something of merit (Bruns, 2007). 

Examples of Produsage sites include

Although produsage has its advantages of allowing diverse views from different cultures to be shared and providing an environment where people contribute, it also has its disadvantages which include questioning of the authenticity of the information divulged and even though people are connected, they lose a social/physical connection. 

According to Jenkins (2006) participatory culture views, advancements in technology allows new tools and avenues for collaboration and sharing ideas. As produsage is a cheap and effective way to share a message, it has become more significant in a growing number of peoples lives. Produsage can be done by anyone, anywhere at any time which invites other people to participate and shared common interests about certain information. Even businesses are honing in on this useful tool as a cheap and effective way to advertise.

Whilst produsage, is a very powerful and collective way of providing content, what will happen if this gets taken over by one or a few powerful entities, perhaps the government and is then controlled by them. What then for produsage? 

I leave you now with an excellent produsage parody.

Signing out for now, See you next week, KM!



References

Bauwens, Michael. "Peer to Peer and Human Happiness

Bruns, Axel (2007) Produsage: Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content 

Creation. In Proceedings Creativity & Cognition 6, Washington, DC.

Bruns, Axel (2008). Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond. From Production to Produsage. Peter Lang. p. 21

Bruns, Axel (2008). "The Future Is User-Led: The Path towards Widespread Produsage". Fiber Cultural Journal 11. Retrieved 16 February 2013.

Jenkins, Henry (2006) Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, New York University Press

Produsage Remix Engage - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcRTVk2ZC4Y viewed 5th February 2014