'Anyone Can Edit': From Users to Produsers

c r e a t i v e n d u s t r i e si

creativeindustries.qut.com

‘Anyone Can Edit’:From Users to Produsers

Dr Axel BrunsARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation

Creative Industries FacultyQueensland University of Technology

[email protected] – http://snurb.info/ – http://produsage.org/

http://snurb.info/

http://snurb.info/

http://produsage.org/



The Produser

‒ No, it’s not a typo…

‒ Produsers are involved in:• user-led content production –

produsage

‒ In a variety of ‘Web 2.0’ environments

(Image: http://flickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss/93136022/)



‒ decline of the traditional value chain:

producer distributor consumer

(producer advised by consumer distributor consumer)

(customer-made ideas producer distributor consumer)

Beyond Production



What’s Happening Here?

‒ Trends towards:• Prosumer (Alvin Toffler)?• Citizen-Consumer (John Hartley)?• Pro-Am Production (Charles Leadbeater & Paul

Miller)?• User-generated products, created by a new

‘Generation C’ (Trendwatching.com)?• Commercial interests ‘Harnessing the Hive’ (J.C.

Herz)?

http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/customer-made.htm



Beyond Products‒ key assumptions about ‘products’:

• products exist in discrete versions, and producers decide when these are to be released• the distribution of products is controlled (and controllable) by producers and distributors, not

by consumers• consumers are relatively isolated – only producers have access to the whole community• the core business lies in the sale of copyrighted products

‒ but in the digital world:• the latest update is always immediately available – e.g. open source, Wikipedia

• content is available for direct access online – users become producers, and the Net replaces the distributor

• consumers join together in enthusiast groups, interest groups, developer groups• the core business lies in providing value-added services around freely available content



A New Value Chain?

(as producer)

produser

(as consumer)

content content



Common Characteristics

‒ shared across these 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



Produsage

‒ emerging in various domains:• open source software development• online publishing

∘ blogs∘ open news – e.g. Slashdot, Indymedia, OhmyNews

• knowledge management∘ wikis – e.g. Wikipedia∘ social bookmarking – e.g. del.icio.us, digg∘ geotagging – e.g. Google Earth, Frappr

• multi-user gaming∘ e.g. The Sims, Everquest, Second Life, Spore

• media sharing and creative practice∘ e.g. Flickr, ccMixter, YouTube, Jumpcut, Current.tv

• reviews and viral marketing∘ e.g. Epinions, IgoUgo

• automatic aggregation∘ Google, Amazon, Technorati

http://slashdot.org/

http://indymedia.org/

http://english.ohmynews.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/

http://del.icio.us/

http://digg.com/

http://earth.google.com/

http://frappr.com/

http://thesims.ea.com/

http://everquest.com/

http://secondlife.com/

http://spore.ea.com/

http://flickr.com/

http://ccmixter.org/

http://youtube.com/

http://jumpcut.com/

http://current.tv/

http://epinions.com/

http://igougo.com/

http://google.com/

http://amazon.com/

http://technorati.com/



Produsage

‒ beyond production:• ‘anyone can edit’ – users become producers of content• outcomes are no longer distinct products – they are temporary

artefacts of a continuing process• usage and production are increasingly, inextricably intertwined• strict distinctions between producers, distributors, and

consumers no longer apply• a new “Generation C” of content produsers?

this is produsage(dt. Produtzung)

http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/GENERATION_C.htm




content development space

set up by community or company to

harbour produsage

(e.g. Wikimedia Foundation; Google;

SourceForge)

commercial / non-profit harvesting of user-generated content

(e.g. The Sims, Wikipedia on CD-ROM)

commercial / non-profit services to support produsage

(e.g. Red Hat, SourceForge)

commercial activities by users themselves, harnessing the hive

(e.g. support services, consultancies, content sales)

initial IP contributions from

individuals, the public domain, or

commercial sources

collaborative, iterative, evolutionary, palimpsestic user-led content development

valuable, often commercial-grade content is created

Produsage Environment(populated by produsers)

Breaking the Chains



Collective Intelligence

‒ Implications of produsage:• emergent community structures?• creative potential – grassroots, vernacular creativity?• (e-)democratic potential?• new applications for collective intelligence?

• sustainability of voluntary labour?• commercial approaches

∘ JC Herz: ‘harnessing the hive’ ∘ how far removed from exploitation (i.e. hijacking the hive)?

• intellectual property issues?• trust, authority, responsibility, liability?

http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/gen-cash.htm


creativeindustries.qut.com(http://www.research.ibm.com/visual/projects/history_flow/capitalism1.htm)



Produser Economics

‒ Economic potential:• ambiguous response by affected industries:

∘ opposition: e.g. software industry, journalism industry∘ interest: e.g. tourism, computer games,advertising, product design

• cheap workforce for commercial producers• but also post-Fordist Pro-Am production/produsage models• Important inputs to process and product innovation

• increasing focus on creativity and innovation in international business development∘ e.g. move from ‘made in China’ to ‘created in China’



(http://freebeer.org/blog/archives/134)



Intellectual Property

‒ Ambiguous relation of produsage to IP:• innovative use of new IP licences (e.g. Creative Commons)• complex IP relationships in massively multi-produser environments (e.g.

Wikipedia)• participants not necessarily aware of legal rights and obligations

• conflicted response from established industries ∘ both “Rip. Mix. Burn.” and p2p persecution∘ both take down notices and YouTube advertising

• potential stifling of produser innovation by heavy-handed IP legislation∘ potential economic impact∘ China’s growth helped by lax IP enforcement

http://creativecommons.org/


creativeindustries.qut.com(http://jpgmag.com/issues/19/full)



Political Implications‒ Towards a post-industrial politics?

• growing effect of produser news on political process ∘ towards more dialogue and deliberation,∘ or more argument and conflict?

• rear-guard battles by governments and news organisations against citizen journalists – but not only in authoritarian regimes

• conflict between alternative and mainstream media coverage∘ e.g. Howard Dean 2004, Australian federal election 2007, Obama and McCain 2008

• digital divide opening between traditional audiences and new produser-citizens?

Is it possible to harness produsage to support a move of citizens from being a passive audience for to being active produsers of democracy?



Viral Marketing

Axel Bruns

Senior Lecturer

ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation

Creative Industries Faculty

Queensland University of Technology

Brisbane, Australia

[email protected]

http://snurb.info/


http://gatewatching.org/

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

Uses of Blogs, eds. Axel Bruns and Joanne Jacobs (Peter Lang, 2006)

Gatewatching: Collaborative Online News Production (Peter Lang, 2005)

mailto:[email protected]

http://snurb.info/


http://gatewatching.org/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0820488666?ie=UTF8&tag=snurbaxelbrun-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0820488666

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http://snurb.info/links/goto/158

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'Anyone Can Edit': From Users to Produsers

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