Produserism

Produserism = the amalgamation of producers and consumers.

See also the related concept of Prosumers

Definition

From Alex Bruns [1]

"Produsage can be roughly defined as modes of production which are led by users or at least crucially involve users as producers - in other words, the user acts as a hybrid user/producer, or produser, virtually throughout the production process. Produsage demonstrates the changed content production value chain model in collaborative online environments: in these environments, a strict producer/consumer dichotomy no longer applies - instead, users are almost always also able to be producers of content, and often necessarily so in the very act of using it." (http://snurb.info/produsage)

Description

"Some key characteristics of produsage are the following:

1. users are productive - produsage is user-led or at least significantly user-involved, and requires heterarchical, permeable community structures,
2. there is collaborative engagement between users and/or between users and other stakeholders,
3. prodused artefacts are unfinished - produsage is palimpsestic, iterative, and evolutionary in its development of ideas and content,
4. alternative approaches to intellectual property are employed in the produsage process."

(http://snurb.info/produsage)

Background

By Chris Blunt at http://www.chrisblunt.com

"Produserism is the term coined by Axel Bruns (2005) to represent the amalgamation of producers and consumers. Bruns recognised the closing gap between those who produce and those who consume within contemporary society, and more particularly, those whose activities occurred within the digital: 'The core object of produsage is to involve users as producers, and these user-produsers often take the lead in the development of new content and ideas.' (Bruns 2005) However, whilst produserism is descendent of the consumerist culture, the ability to produse fundamentally gives the power to analyse and to account. A produserist society consumes and remixes not only the commercial product, but also the very society in which they exist."

More Information

Source: Bruns, A. (2005) Some Explanatory Notes on Produsers and Produsage. Institute for Distributed Creativity online.

Available from: http://distributedcreativity.typepad.com/idc_texts/2005/11/some_explorator.html [Accessed 21 December 2005]

Video:Axel Bruns Vlogs on Produsage