Exploiting Produsers

Exploiting Produsers

Watching Axel Bruns talk from 2010 generated a lot of thinking for me surrounding the concept of produsage. The 4 key principles that Bruns outlines that are vital to produsage being effective are (1) open participation for all and communal evaluation; (2) fluid heterarchy, the equal ability to make a worthy contribution; (3) all content and information are unfinished artefacts and a continual process; and (4) all information and content is common property and remains the property of the community (Produsage 2007). 

At first look most platforms for produsage (which there are thousands) seem to be free and accessible, not intruded upon or infiltrated by greed and follow all the above principles. But it seems that eventually this changes as corporations, powerful groups and individuals begin to see the power in controlling, changing and manipulating the environment that is set up to allow for produsers to openly create and share. They want a share and this is the point where produsage loses its true meaning and becomes another tool for business and dominant groups to take advantage of people. 

‘It is vital that a produsage environment avoids attempts by individuals, business and community leaders to capatalise on its content, it ‘must’ remain owned by the community who produces it’.

Axel Bruns mentions that you would rather be Wikipedia than Facebook. Wikipedia leaves users to create and generate content, whereas Facebook makes changes for users without users support. Many incidents have occurred where Facebook users have complained of changes and being bombarded with content they never asked for. Business is having a growing impact on produsage, taking away the value of being a producer and user. SIMS is another example, where they charge people for content that users have created. Business is taking advantage of produsers, what should be owned and built on by users who create it, is being taken by business and used as a money making venture (Next.video 2010).

The value of produsage at its core is reflected in Jenkins view that information created collectively by people through collaboration and contribution via sites like Wikipedia are a clear example of how new knowledge can be captured by millions of people and continually grow and evolve with the people producing and using that information (Jenkins 2008). There is great value for all communities in creating environments that follow the 4 principles of produsage, in allowing everyone to have equal say and share valuable information. So how do we control the environment for effective produsage? How do we ensure that these environments we create are not open to exploitation? 

References:

Jenkins, H 2008, ‘Sharing notes about collective intelligence’, Confessions of an aca-fan, the official weblog of Henry Jenkins, 4 February, viewed 2 February 2014, <http://henryjenkins.org/2008/02/last_week_my_travels_took.html>.

Next.video 2010, Produsage and business: sharing your brand with users, 17 December, viewed 2 February 2014, <http://video.nextconf.eu/video/923263/produsage-and-business-sharing>.

Produsage 2007, Produsage.org, viewed 2 February 2014, <http://produsage.org/node/11>.