Produsage

Remember the old saying that two heads are better than one?  Produsage is the modern, digital equivalent of that saying.  It is a continuous cycle of improving ideas or information that already exist.

"...once you start contributing and sharing and connecting

with the work of those who connect with yours,

you're engaging in something called produsage." 

Bon Stewart (2010) 

There are four core characteristics to produsage:

1.  It is community based

2.  The roles are fluid.  Over time different leaders will emerge based on their skills, interests and knowledge.

3.  The result is an unfinished artifact that is subjected to continual development.

4.  It remains common property with individuals being rewarded by the status capital they gain for their contributions (Bruns 2007).

From the fourth characteristic it is clear that produsage is fundamentally at odds with the underlying premises of traditional intellectual property.  Produsage has contributed to an emergent ethic of sharing that demands such laws and the economies they generate, be revised (Sinnreich et al nd).  Accompanying this there is also a deep social need currently rising for media ethics (Couldry nd).  Couldry sums up it by saying that we no longer know how to live together without media, yet we haven't figured out how to live well with media.

Bruns (2008) points out a few key principles for future and continuous development of produsage.  He stresses the importance of organizations working with produsage communities to respect the characteristics, principles and conventions which apply to the produsage process.  The future will require well educated producers, therefore educational institutions should equip their graduates with produsage skills.

 Clearly produsage currently works well for sites like Wikipedia, open source programs, game development and even through interaction on blogs.  However I do believe that the true potential of produsage is yet to be experienced.   Most of us just repost links without commenting or exploring the ideas contained in that link.  Yet this reposting is very useful for sites like Google to determine what people deem important or interesting.  It seems that people are less able to create and more willing to share.  In fact some sites exist purely because of this like Pinterest.

For me producing your own content is the opportunity to materialize that what matters to you.  This is then maintained and expanded by the attention and comments of others.  Distribution and production opportunities are more available than ever, to more people than ever.  Once we all get involved the opportunities for greater application of knowledge, greater quality control and greater socialization are endless.

References

Bruns, A 2007,  'Produsage - key principles', Produsage, viewed 8 January 2013,

 
Bruns, A 2008, 'The future is user led: the path to widespread produsage', The Fibreculture Journal, vol. 11, viewed 8 January 2013,

Couldry, N nd, 'Why media ethics still matters', John Wiley, viewed 8 January 2013,

Sinnreich, A, Latonero, M, Gluck, M and Riley, N nd, 'Nowadays it's like remix world: the hidden demography of new media ethics', Academia, viewed 8 January 2013,