What is Produsage?

There are plenty of new buzzwords out there in the world of new media technologies, some sensible, others rather a lame attempt to invent a new word or term which will catch on in the age of the internet and web 2.0. One of the more credible, innovative and apt terms I have come across, which happens to be the brainchild of our KCB 201 lecturer Dr Axel Bruns, is 'produsage.'

So what is produsage you ask? In his own paper 'Produsage: A Working Definition' Bruns explains produsage as "the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement."

As one of Axel's students, my understanding is that he invented the term 'produsage' to explain the way in which the internet has opened up opportunities for everyday people to become producers as well as users. No longer is society divided into those who produce (an end product) and those who consume. The internet and Web 2.0 have transformed society from being a property and material "things" based ecomomy (brought about by the Industrial Revolution) into an information and knowledge based economy. This has enabled a participatory environment where the product is neither tangible nor complete. Information and knowledge are shared, changed, edited, adapted, recycled and re-used on an even platform. While this is the essence of the term produsage, it becomes more complex when discussing its relationship to many other internet based terms.

The word produsage can be a little ambiguous in some situations, for example Ebay and Amazon.com - you can participate by buying and selling, but are you really "produsing" in the proper sense of the word. Well let's take a look at the pre-requisites for being an environment of produsage:

As Axel explains in much of his work, there are 4 key principles or "pre-conditions" neccessary to qualify a technosocial environment as produsage. These are:

• Open participation and communal evaluation
• Fluid heterachey and Ad Hoc Meritocracy
• Unfinished artifacts in a continuing process
• Common property with individual rewards

Each of these will influence the growth and development of the environment in which collective content creation is taking place. I guess I wouldn't classify Ebay or Amazon as produsage under these terms. You could argue the pint and get away with classifying them as such but it's a fine line.

Axel is "the" expert on produsage. After all, he did invent the term and he has written many articles on the topic. So if you are really into virtual cultures/social networking/Web 2.0 and want to know more, be sure to check out his blog, his website produsage.org and his new book!