Usage to Produsage

In the beginning, there was a hierarchy: Producers > Distributers > Consumers.

The role of the consumer was to have needs, the role of the producer was to satisfy these needs and the role of the distributer was, to in fact (surprisingly) distribute the product. The consumers were not active in the product and service development. This is supported by the statement from the Ford Motor Company, “you can have any colour you like as long as it is black.”

Gradually, however, this hierarchy adjusted when the producers, under strain from the fiercly competitative market, looked into developing their products to match the needs and wants of the consumers.

With the introduction of Web 2.0 taking off all over the world, a new system has been developed. Producer <> Consumer. Hence the prosumer has been born.

Bruns (2007) notes that society has pushed to becoming the prosumers of democracy. It has become evident to him that producers no longer only distribute knowledge and information to consumers but rather, consumers have become much more actively involved in shaping their own media and network usage. Therefore this has brought forward the emergence of information from both professionals and non-professionals or ‘experts’ and ‘folks’ to contribute and add their knowledge, views and opinions. 

Now it seems, everyone is operating on a neutral playing field. It is the non-hierarchical, many-to-many media: in intecreative environments, user collaborative (often in large communities) on the development and extension of shared information resources of common interest, rather than merely interacting with the material already available; they are taking into their own hands the tools to create content. Flew (2008) decribes the process ‘where users engage and participate, often simultaneously or interchangeably, as both a consumer and a producer of information and news’. As a result, such users are engaged in the development of a more participatory culture. And now, consumers are no longer just that, but active participants in the creation and development as well as the usage of the product (Bruns. 2007).

The importance of the prosumer concept was emphasized in 2006 when reinforcing the significance of user-led content and the role that produsage plays in society, TIME magazine awarded its ‘Person of the Year’ to ‘You’. For the reason of each person’s collective contribution to the Web 2.0 (Flew 2008).

We are at an interesting phase of development in this century, it is clever and dynamic and hopefully, will ultimately bring out the most everyone can have to offer, harnessing the collective intelligence.

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