Produsage and the Cat

What the hell is produsage?  Produsage describes the process of producing and using, simultaneously, in an online environment (Bruns, A 2007). The term was developed when Web 2.0 and social media combined, allowing people to ‘collaborate in the development and continuous improvement of a wide variety of content’. (Bruns & Schmidt 2011).

My main experience with produsage has been Wikipedia. Wikipedia allows people not online to consume content, but it also allows them to write and edit the content. This results in greater user empowerment. For me,it makes me feel two things; firstly, it makes me feel free that I am able to edit and contribute to information. However it also makes me sceptical about the information - where has it come from? Is it true and reliable? I believe this scepticism is beneficial because it’s important to know where you’re getting your information from.  

There are a couple of key benefits to produsage. Firstly, because the information is always evolving, it is far less likely than traditional publications, to have inaccurate or out of date information (dwn24 2010).  Another benefit is that it allows almost anybody to publish something (dwn24 2010). This demolishes the traditional producer-consumer structure and allows for greater equality in the mediasphere (Miller 2011 p.87).

The major obvious limitation of  produsage is that innovation is essentially abolished. Crowd sourcing information frequently results in generalised, average and dull information (dwn24 2010). It’s the opinion that is most popular. For this reason, I strongly believe that produsage should definitely not be the only source of information, going forward.

evil_thoughts_kitten. [image online] 2010

For example, produsage sourced information regarding cats might find that ‘kittens are cuddly’. However this might not be true! What if there is some genius scientist guy out there that finds the opposite? If produsage was our only source, his voice would never be heard! Disastrous!

Media educator and philosopher,  Henry Jenkins, theorised that participatory culture encourages civic engagement and provides a strong support platform for sharing ideas and creations (Jenkins 2009 p. xi). This is evidently true for collaborative platforms like Songkick; a website which crowd sources information to provide its users with the most accurate dates and locations of concerts. Songkick goes one step further into produsage: when a user submits that they are attending a concert, it publishes a list of how many people are expected to attend that concert. Thus, by using Songkick, you’re simultaneously producing information for Songkick!

Songkick Logo 2014

References

A, B. 2007. Produsage: Key Principles |. [online] Available at: http://produsage.org/node/11 [Accessed: 23 Jan 2014].       

Bruns, A. and Schmidt, J. 2011. Produsage: A Closer Look at Continuing Developments. [online] Available at: http://www.academia.edu/2342247/Produsage_A_Closer_Look_at_Continuing_Developments [Accessed: 23 Jan 2014].       

Hidden Track. 2011. songkick_logo. [image online] Available at: http://www.glidemagazine.com/hiddentrack/daft-punkd-songkick-coachella-info-bad-data/ [Accessed: 23 Jan 2014].           

Jenkins, H. 2009. Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture. [e-book] Cambridge, Massachusettes: MIT Press. p. xi. Available through: Google Scholar [Accessed: 23 Jan 2014].           

Mighty Distractable. 2010. evil_thoughts_kitten. [image online] Available at: http://mightydistractible.blogspot.com/2010/10/curses-foiled-again.html [Accessed: 23 Jan 2014].

Miller, Vincent. Understanding Digital Culture. "Convergence and the Contemporary Media Experience." Sage. 2011           

Nicholls, D. 2010. Produsage – Important or just widespread?. newmedia10dwn24, [blog] 17 March, Available at: http://blogs.cornell.edu/newmedia10dwn24/2010/03/17/produsage-important-or-just-widespread-dan-nicholls/ [Accessed: 23 Jan 2014].