Produsage and Participatory Culture

Produsage and Participatory CultureM024610021 Grgoire Lesene routine Response Essay for The Audience in Media and Communications course Produsage Towards a Broader Frame mesh for User-Led Content excogitation Axel BrunsSummaryIn Produsage Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content Creation, Dr. Axel Bruns defines the judgment of produsage, coined by the scholar himself after the foothold production and usage (Wikipedia), so as to characterize todays user led message environments. According to Bruns, produsage is the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement. (Bruns 2).This look is linked with the emergence of the so-called social software and Web 2.0 environments, and beautifys the phenomenon of users or consumers playing the roles of producers in respective(a) virtual settings such as social networking (with sites such as Facebook, Myspace or LinkedIn), experience management (Wikipedia or Google Earth), creative practice (Flickr, YouTube or ccMixter), multi-user online gaming (as risquers are being more and more have-to doe with in the development of games, with the example of The Sims, where 90% of the games content being made by consumers preferably than the developer Maxis), citizen journalism (Indymedia or Slashdot, having an touch on political processes in several countries (Bruns 3)), collaborative filtering (Amazons recommendations or Googles PageRank) and open source software development (Linux or LibreOffice).The reason informs us the phenomenon of users being convoluted in content creation is far from being new, as the term prosumer was already coined four decades ago by American writer and futurist Alvin Toffler so as to eviscerate more informed, more involved consumer of goods who would need to be addressed by allowing for a greater customisability and individualisability of products (Bruns 3). The fancy of pro-am was also approached by Charles Leadbeater to d escribe a joint effort of producers and consumers in developing new and improved commercial goods. (Bruns 3). It is mentioned by the author that the above-mentioned models sustain however a traditional industrial production chain, as the split into three softens is still present (producer, distributor and consumer).Author Alex Bruns states the concept of produsage can be defined sideline four characteristics, which are 1) shifts from producers to wide communities of participants, 2) flowing movement between produsers roles, 3) unfinished products that are subjects to constant evolutions and modifications, 4) produsers sleep together and value authorship and merit while forbidding unauthorized commercial usage so as to promote constant improvement of products.Detailing commercial approaches of the produsage (i.e. crowdsourcing), scholar Bruns points out the possible issues of this model, among which the caper of statutory concept of copyright which needs to be reconsidered (Bru ns 7), and states that if such a trend keeps on working, it should be considered as a fundamental paradigm change with deep involvements.EvaluationBased on the affordances of the technosocial framework of the networked environments (Snurb 1), produsage allows amateurs and professionals resembling to work hand in hand in order to create and share information or products with the rest of the world. This collaboration brings several acquires, among which the sharing of knowledge, such as website Wikipedia.org, which allows some(prenominal)one free access and content to an profit encyclopedia.In this era of participatory culture, prison term and money are less of an obstacle than it utilize to be. For instance number ones global crowd reenforcement platform Kickstarter enables individuals to bring a project to life, victimisation public fundraising to bring projects such as video games, music albums, inventions, movies etc. to completion if minimum funding goals are attained.Using the example of the video game industry, where traditionally large publishing companies have an impact on the original ideas and visions of video game developers, rendering at times a piece of work unfinished or oftentimes bugged that necessitates patching afterwards (with for instance the example of computer game Fallout 2, which was rendered fully playable due to an unofficial patching by fans), crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter straightaway allow developers to fully conceive their work of art the way they want it to be without any boundaries. because in such cases, the intervention of the public, the involvement of consumers in the production of contents is seen as beneficial, as constraints of the past are now overcome.Although produsage appear to have a positive impact in authoritative areas, the concept has its limitations in some fields, among which in the domain of education. As media expert and MIT Professor Henry Jenkins states, there is a huge gap between what you can do when youve got unlimited access to broadband in your ingleside and what you can do when your only access is through the public library, where there are often time limits on how long you can work, when there are already federally mandated filters blocking access to trustworthy sites, when there are limits on your ability to store and upload material, and so forth. (Jenkins 1).Two other deficiencies of the concept of participatory culture are also pointed out by Henry Jenkins, what he calls the transparency problem and the morality challenge. For Jenkins, the transparency problem is the issue young people are confronted with while knowledge as media change perceptions of the world. As a matter of fact, we cannot deny that our ability to elucidate the veracity of certain information is at times challenged due to the tremendous amount of information available.The other issue named the ethics challenge is defined as the breakdown of traditional forms of professional train ing and socialization that might repair young people for their increasingly public roles as media makers and community participants. (Norris 1). Taking the rise of citizen journalism to illustrate this point, almost everyone can pretend to be a journalist to date, while this career is traditionally buttoned with a certain education, rules and techniques.ElaborationFollowing the reading of this journal along with various articles linked with the concepts of produsage and participatory culture, we have learnt the involvement of produsers is beneficial and detrimental at the same time. The goal of produsers is to provide freely to individuals without any form of rewards. However the risk might occurs that companies may take advantage of such contents to benefit themselves. Subsequently we cannot help but wonder about the continuity on the long-term of such practices, as eventually contributors might be tempted to earn something in return for their hardwork.Produsage content is nowada ys undeniably part of our daily lives and it is somewhat difficult to imagine how we would be able to do without this amount of accessible knowledge to us. Because of produsage, we can have access to unlimited forms of learning such as YouTube tutorials for instance, and Wikipedia has become a scholarly persons staple for dealing with assignment or as a decent if not bona fide source of knowledge for plenty of individuals (despite the fact we fundamentally know such affirmations on this website should be do by with caution).Therefore did produsage and participatory culture help us broaden our criticism, view and understanding of our daily purlieu or did they simply worsen these skills?As online communities seem to favor more and more virtual realities such as the game The Sims, does produsage create loneliness and antisocial, reclusive living habits, far away from real humankind contact?ReferencesBruns, A., (2007). Produsage Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content Crea tion.Proceedings Creativity Cognition. 6 (1), pp.1-7Bruns, A., (2008). The Future Is User-Led The Path towards Widespread Produsage. Fibreculture Journal. 11 (1), pp.1-10Wikipedia (n.d.). Produsage. ONLINE Available at http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Produsage. Last Accessed 28 November 2014.Open Source (n.d.). What is open source?. ONLINE Available at http//opensource.com/resources/what-open-source. Last Accessed 28 November 2014.Snurb (2007). Produsage A Working Definition. ONLINE Available at http//produsage.org/produsage. Last Accessed 28 November 2014.Jenkins, H. (2006). MySpace and the Participation Gap. ONLINE Available at http//henryjenkins.org/2006/06/myspace_and_the_participation.html. Last Accessed 28 November 2014.Norris, A (2012). Review of Jenkins work on Participatory Cultures. ONLINE Available at http//www.hastac.org/blogs/aaminahm/2012/08/11/review-jenkins-work-participatory-cultures. Last Accessed 28 November 2014.