Exploring the Pro-Am Interfacebetween Production and Produsage

Dr Axel Bruns

Associate ProfessorARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and InnovationQueensland University of Technology

a.bruns@qut.edu.au http://snurb.info/ @snurb_dot_info

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The Participatory Turn

From the industrial value chain…

producer distributor consumer

…to the participative Web:

(as user)

produser

(as producer)

content content

Produsage

Key principles of produsage environments:– Open Participation, Communal Evaluation:

the community as a whole, if sufficiently large and varied, can contribute more than a closed team of producers, however qualified

– Fluid Heterarchy, Ad Hoc Meritocracy:produsers participate as is appropriate to their personal skills, interests, and knowledges; this changes as the produsage project proceeds

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Key Principles

Key principles of produsage environments:– Open Participation, Communal Evaluation:

the community as a whole, if sufficiently large and varied, can contribute more than a closed team of producers, however qualified

– Fluid Heterarchy, Ad Hoc Meritocracy:produsers participate as is appropriate to their personal skills, interests, and knowledges; this changes as the produsage project proceeds

– Unfinished Artefacts, Continuing Process:content artefacts in produsage projects are continually under development, and therefore always unfinished; their development follows evolutionary, iterative, palimpsestic paths

– Common Property, Individual Merit:contributors permit (non-commercial) community use of their intellectual property, and are rewarded by the status capital

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Produsage and Business

Professional? Amateur? Both?

Pro-Ams work at their leisure, regard consumption as a productive activity and set professional standards to judge their amateur efforts. (Leadbeater & Miller, 2004)

Connectors between produsage communities and business interests

Alternatively:– Lead users (von Hippel, 2005)– Community leaders– Prosumers? (Toffler, 1970)

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Beware the Prosumer

Dreams of a “customer-activated manufacturing system”:– In the end, the consumer, not merely providing the specs but punching

the button that sets this entire process in action, will become as much a part of the production process as the denim-clad assembly-line worker was in the world now dying. (The Third Wave, 1980: 274)

– Producer and consumer, divorced by the industrial revolution, are reunited in the cycle of wealth creation, with the customer contributing not just the money but market and design information vital for the production process. Buyer and supplier share data, information, and knowledge. Someday, customers may also push buttons that activate remote production processes. Consumer and producer fuse into a “prosumer.” (Powershift, 1990: 239)

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Towards Pro/Am Collaboration

Establishing the ‘netarchist firm’:

They are ‘acceptable’ intermediaries for the actors of … participatory culture. (Bauwens, 2005)

– Breaking down corporate boundaries– Working with the community, but for profit– Establishing heterarchical governance structures– Transcending copyright as the central business model

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Joining Production and Produsage

Requirements for Pro/Am Projects:– Shared Responsibility and Control:

neither side controls the project outright, and each must respect the other’s interests; governance mechanisms must support a sharing of responsibility

– Mobility between Community and Corporation:participants – especially Pro-Ams – must be able to move between the two sides with ease; this also creates incentives for staff and community to participate

Joining Production and Produsage

Requirements for Pro/Am Projects:– Shared Responsibility and Control:

neither side controls the project outright, and each must respect the other’s interests; governance mechanisms must support a sharing of responsibility

– Mobility between Community and Corporation:participants – especially Pro-Ams – must be able to move between the two sides with ease; this also creates incentives for staff and community to participate

– Redesign of Products as Evolving Artefacts:disruptions of the ongoing, incremental produsage process in order to package outcomes as complete ‘products’ are disruptive and unacceptable

– Acceptance of Non-Exclusive Corporate Use of Content:corporations cannot expect to gain exclusive rights to user-created content, but neither can communities fully rule out commercial use

Canaries in the Coalmine

Journalism in transition:– Current models failing – badly– Silver bullet solutions doubtful (paywalls, iPad delivery)– Credible participatory models emerging– Global crises amplify interest in the news

Will we see new Pro-Am frameworks develop here?

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Viral Marketing

Axel Bruns

Associate Professor

ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation

Creative Industries Faculty

Queensland University of Technology

Email: a.bruns@qut.edu.au

Blog: http://snurb.info/

Twitter: @snurb_dot_info

Produsage: http://produsage.org/

LinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/in/snurb

Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond:From Production to Produsage (Peter Lang, 2008)