Literary prosumers : young people’s reading and writing in a new media landscape

The production of culture is today a matter of ‘user generated content’ and young people are vital participants as ‘prosumers’, i.e. both producers and consumers, of cultural products. Among other things, they are busy creating fan works (stories, pictures, films) based on already published material. Using the genre fan fiction as a point of departure, this article explores the drivers behind net communities organised around fan culture and argues that fan fiction sites can in many aspects be regarded as informal learning settings. By turning to the rhetoric principle of imitatio, the article shows how in the collective interactive processes between readers and writers such fans develop literacies and construct gendered identities.

Vom Prosumer zum Produser : Ein neues Verständnis nutzergesteuerter Inhaltserschaffung

Alvin Tofflers Bild des Prosumers beeinflußt weiterhin maßgeblich unser Verständnis vieler heutzutage als „Social Media“ oder „Web 2.0“ beschriebener nutzergesteuerter, kollaborativer Prozesse der Inhaltserstellung. Ein genauerer Blick auf Tofflers eigene Beschreibung seines Prosumermodells offenbart jedoch, daß es fest im Zeitalter der Massenmedienvorherrschaft verankert bleibt: der Prosumer ist eben nicht jener aus eigenem Antrieb aktive, kreative Ersteller und Weiterbearbeiter neuer Inhalte, wie er heutzutage in Projekten von der Open-Source-Software über die Wikipedia bis hin zu Second Life zu finden ist, sondern nur ein ganz besonders gut informierter, und daher in seinem Konsumverhalten sowohl besonders kritischer als auch besonders aktiver Konsument. Hochspezialisierte, High-End-Konsumenten etwa im Hi-Fi- oder Automobilbereich stellen viel eher das Idealbild des Prosumers dar als das für Mitarbeiter in oft eben gerade nicht (oder zumindest noch nicht) kommerziell erfaßten nutzergesteuerten Kollaborationsprojekten der Fall ist. Solches von Tofflers in den 70ern erarbeiteten Modells zu erwarten, ist sicherlich ohnehin zuviel verlangt. Das Problem liegt also nicht bei Toffler selbst, sondern vielmehr in den im Industriezeitalter vorherrschenden Vorstellungen eines recht deutlich in Produktion, Distribution, und Konsum eingeteilten Prozesses. Diese Dreiteilung war für die Erschaffung materieller wie immaterieller Güter durchaus notwendig – sie ist selbst für die konventionellen Massenmedien zutreffend, bei denen Inhaltsproduktion ebenso aus kommerziellen Gründen auf einige wenige Institutionen konzentriert war wie das für die Produktion von Konsumgütern der Fall ist. Im beginnenden Informationszeitalter, beherrscht durch dezentralisierte Mediennetzwerke und weithin erhaltbare und erschwingliche Produktionsmittel, liegt der Fall jedoch anders. Was passiert, wenn Distribution automatisch erfolgt, und wenn beinahe jeder Konsument auch Produzent sein kann, anstelle einer kleinen Schar von kommerziell unterstützten Produzenten, denen bestenfallls vielleicht eine Handvoll von nahezu professionellen Prosumern zur Seite steht? Was geschieht, wenn sich die Zahl der von Eric von Hippel als ‚lead user’ beschriebenen als Produzenten aktiven Konsumenten massiv ausdehnt – wenn, wie Wikipedias Slogan es beschreibt, ‚anyone can edit’, wenn also potentiell jeder Nutzer aktiv an der Inhaltserstellung teilnehmen kann? Um die kreative und kollaborative Beteiligung zu beschreiben, die heutzutage nutzergesteuerte Projekte wie etwa die Wikipedia auszeichnet, sind Begriffe wie ‚Produktion’ und ‚Konsum’ nur noch bedingt nützlich – selbst in Konstruktionen wie 'nutzergesteuerte Produktion' oder 'P2P-Produktion'. In den Nutzergemeinschaften, die an solchen Formen der Inhaltserschaffung teilnehmen, haben sich Rollen als Konsumenten und Benutzer längst unwiederbringlich mit solchen als Produzent vermischt: Nutzer sind immer auch unausweichlich Produzenten der gemeinsamen Informationssammlung, ganz egal, ob sie sich dessens auch bewußt sind: sie haben eine neue, hybride Rolle angenommen, die sich vielleicht am besten als 'Produtzer' umschreiben lassen kann. Projekte, die auf solche Produtzung (Englisch: produsage) aufbauen, finden sich in Bereichen von Open-Source-Software über Bürgerjournalismus bis hin zur Wikipedia, und darüberhinaus auch zunehmend in Computerspielen, Filesharing, und selbst im Design materieller Güter. Obwohl unterschiedlich in ihrer Ausrichtung, bauen sie doch auf eine kleine Zahl universeller Grundprinzipien auf. Dieser Vortrag beschreibt diese Grundprinzipien, und zeigt die möglichen Implikationen dieses Übergangs von Produktion (und Prosumption) zu Produtzung auf.

Produtzung : Von medialer zu politischer Partizipation

Wahrscheinlich war es ja nur ein Versuch einer alteingesessenen Institution der Massenmedien, sich bei „den Leuten, die man früher ‚das Publikum‘ nannte“ („the people formerly known as the audience“; Rosen, 2006, n.pag.) wieder einzuschmeicheln. Dennoch, die Anerkennung des kollektiven „You“ in YouTube und anderen kollaborativen Onlineplattformen als Person des Jahres durch das amerikanische Magazin Time (Grossman, 2007) liefert ein weiteres Indiz für die wachsende Bedeutung solcher Projekte zur gemeinschaftlichen Produktion und Distribution von Inhalten. Kreative Websites wie Flickr und YouTube, kollaborative Wissenssammlungen von Wikipedia über Digg bis zu Google Earth, nutzergesteuerte Diskussionen in Slashdot, OhmyNews, und der allgemeinen Blogosphäre, aber auch die Softwareentwicklungsgemeinschaften im Open‐Source‐Bereich – sie alle dienen als Beispiele für diese nun etablierten Trend zur Entwicklung neuer Produktions‐, Geschäfts‐, Gemeinschafts‐ und Selbstlenkungsmodelle, die wesentlich durch zunehmend komplexere Web‐2.0‐Tools unterstützt werden. Hinter diesen Beispielen wird eine allgemeiner Tendenz sichtbar, die aus ökonomischer Sicht bereits von Yochai Benkler als „commons‐based peer production“ (2006), und von Eric von Hippel als „democratizing innovation" (2005) beschrieben worden ist. Henry Jenkins spricht zudem von einer „convergence culture“ (2006), in der solche nutzergesteuerten Projekte operieren, und es können auch Verbindungen zwischen diesen stärker aktive gewordenen Nutzern und Alvin Tofflers professionellen Konsumenten, den „Prosumers“ ziehen (1971).

The rise of co-creative consumers : user experience sharing behaviour in online communities

This thesis examines consumer initiated value co-creation behaviour in the context of convergent mobile online services using a Service-Dominant logic (SD logic) theoretical framework. It focuses on non-reciprocal marketing phenomena such as open innovation and user generated content whereby new viable business models are derived and consumer roles and community become essential to the success of business. Attention to customers. roles and personalised experiences in value co-creation has been recognised in the literature (e.g., Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2000; Prahalad, 2004; Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004). Similarly, in a subsequent iteration of their 2004 version of the foundations of SD logic, Vargo and Lusch (2006) replaced the concept of value co-production with value co-creation and suggested that a value co-creation mindset is essential to underpin the firm-customer value creation relationship. Much of this focus, however, has been limited to firm initiated value co-creation (e.g., B2B or B2C), while consumer initiated value creation, particularly consumer-to-consumer (C2C) has received little attention in the SD logic literature. While it is recognised that not every consumer wishes to make the effort to engage extensively in co-creation processes (MacDonald & Uncles, 2009), some consumers may not be satisfied with a standard product, instead they engage in the effort required for personalisation that potentially leads to greater value for themselves, and which may benefit not only the firm, but other consumers as well. Literature suggests that there are consumers who do, and as a result initiate such behaviour and expend effort to engage in co-creation activity (e.g., Gruen, Osmonbekov and Czaplewski, 2006; 2007 MacDonald & Uncles, 2009). In terms of consumers. engagement in value proposition (co-production) and value actualisation (co-creation), SD logic (Vargo & Lusch, 2004, 2008) provides a new lens that enables marketing scholars to transcend existing marketing theory and facilitates marketing practitioners to initiate service centric and value co-creation oriented marketing practices. Although the active role of the consumer is acknowledged in the SD logic oriented literature, we know little about how and why consumers participate in a value co-creation process (Payne, Storbacka, & Frow, 2008). Literature suggests that researchers should focus on areas such as C2C interaction (Gummesson 2007; Nicholls 2010) and consumer experience sharing and co-creation (Belk 2009; Prahalad & Ramaswamy 2004). In particular, this thesis seeks to better understand consumer initiated value co-creation, which is aligned with the notion that consumers can be resource integrators (Baron & Harris, 2008) and more. The reason for this focus is that consumers today are more empowered in both online and offline contexts (Füller, Mühlbacher, Matzler, & Jawecki, 2009; Sweeney, 2007). Active consumers take initiatives to engage and co-create solutions with other active actors in the market for their betterment of life (Ballantyne & Varey, 2006; Grönroos & Ravald, 2009). In terms of the organisation of the thesis, this thesis first takes a „zoom-out. (Vargo & Lusch, 2011) approach and develops the Experience Co-Creation (ECo) framework that is aligned with balanced centricity (Gummesson, 2008) and Actor-to-Actor worldview (Vargo & Lusch, 2011). This ECo framework is based on an extended „SD logic friendly lexicon. (Lusch & Vargo, 2006): value initiation and value initiator, value-in-experience, betterment centricity and betterment outcomes, and experience co-creation contexts derived from five gaps identified from the SD logic literature review. The framework is also designed to accommodate broader marketing phenomena (i.e., both reciprocal and non-reciprocal marketing phenomena). After zooming out and establishing the ECo framework, the thesis takes a zoom-in approach and places attention back on the value co-creation process. Owing to the scope of the current research, this thesis focuses specifically on non-reciprocal value co-creation phenomena initiated by consumers in online communities. Two emergent concepts: User Experience Sharing (UES) and Co-Creative Consumers are proposed grounded in the ECo framework. Together, these two theorised concepts shed light on the following two propositions: (1) User Experience Sharing derives value-in-experience as consumers make initiative efforts to participate in value co-creation, and (2) Co-Creative Consumers are value initiators who perform UES. Three research questions were identified underpinning the scope of this research: RQ1: What factors influence consumers to exhibit User Experience Sharing behaviour? RQ2: Why do Co-Creative Consumers participate in User Experience Sharing as part of value co-creation behaviour? RQ3: What are the characteristics of Co-Creative Consumers? To answer these research questions, two theoretical models were developed: the User Experience Sharing Behaviour Model (UESBM) grounded in the Theory of Planned Behaviour framework, and the Co-Creative Consumer Motivation Model (CCMM) grounded in the Motivation, Opportunity, Ability framework. The models use SD logic consistent constructs and draw upon multiple streams of literature including consumer education, consumer psychology and consumer behaviour, and organisational psychology and organisational behaviour. These constructs include User Experience Sharing with Other Consumers (UESC), User Experience Sharing with Firms (UESF), Enjoyment in Helping Others (EIHO), Consumer Empowerment (EMP), Consumer Competence (COMP), and Intention to Engage in User Experience Sharing (INT), Attitudes toward User Experience Sharing (ATT) and Subjective Norm (SN) in the UESBM, and User Experience Sharing (UES), Consumer Citizenship (CIT), Relating Needs of Self (RELS) and Relating Needs of Others (RELO), Newness (NEW), Mavenism (MAV), Use Innovativeness (UI), Personal Initiative (PIN) and Communality (COMU) in the CCMM. Many of these constructs are relatively new to marketing and require further empirical evidence for support. Two studies were conducted to underpin the corresponding research questions. Study One was conducted to calibrate and re-specify the proposed models. Study Two was a replica study to confirm the proposed models. In Study One, data were collected from a PC DIY online community. In Study Two, a majority of data were collected from Apple product online communities. The data were examined using structural equation modelling and cluster analysis. Considering the nature of the forums, the Study One data is considered to reflect some characteristics of Prosumers and the Study Two data is considered to reflect some characteristics of Innovators. The results drawn from two independent samples (N = 326 and N = 294) provide empirical support for the overall structure theorised in the research models. The results in both models show that Enjoyment in Helping Others and Consumer Competence in the UESBM, and Consumer Citizenship and Relating Needs in CCMM have significant impacts on UES. The consistent results appeared in both Study One and Study Two. The results also support the conceptualisation of Co-Creative Consumers and indicate Co-Creative Consumers are individuals who are able to relate the needs of themselves and others and feel a responsibility to share their valuable personal experiences. In general, the results shed light on "How and why consumers voluntarily participate in the value co-creation process?. The findings provide evidence to conceptualise User Experience Sharing behaviour as well as the Co-Creative Consumer using the lens of SD logic. This research is a pioneering study that incorporates and empirically tests SD logic consistent constructs to examine a particular area of the logic – that is consumer initiated value co-creation behaviour. This thesis also informs practitioners about how to facilitate and understand factors that engage with either firm or consumer initiated online communities.

Pass the scissors : consumers close in on the fashion industry

The fashion ecosystem is at boiling point as consumers turn up the heat in all areas of the fashion value, trend and supply chain. While traditionally fashion has been a monologue from designer brand to consumer, new technology and the virtual world has given consumers a voice to engage brands in a conversation to express evolving needs, ideas and feedback. Product customisation is no longer innovative. Successful brands are including customers in the design process and holding conversations ‘with’ them to improve product, manufacturing, sales, distribution, marketing and sustainable business practices. Co-creation and crowd sourcing are integral to any successful business model and designers and manufacturers are supplying the technology or tools for these creative, active, participatory ‘prosumers’. With this collaboration however, there arises a worrying trend for fashion professionals. The ‘design it yourself’, ‘indiepreneur’ who with the combination of technology, the internet, excess manufacturing capacity, crowd funding and the idea of sharing the creative integrity of a product (‘copyleft’ not copyright) is challenging the notion that the fashion supply chain is complex. The passive ‘consumer’ no longer exists. Fashion designers now share the stage with ‘amateur’ creators who are disrupting every activity they touch, while being motivated by profit as well as a quest for originality and innovation. This paper examines the effects this ‘consumer’ engagement is having on traditional fashion models and the fashion supply chain. Crowd sourcing, crowd funding, co-creating, design it yourself, global sourcing, the virtual supply chain, social media, online shopping, group buying, consumer to consumer marketing and retail, and branding the ‘individual’ are indicative of the new consumer-driven fashion models. Consumers now drive the fashion industry - from setting trends, through to creating, producing, selling and marketing product. They can turn up the heat at any time _ and any point _ in the fashion supply chain. They are raising the temperature at each and every stage of the chain, decreasing or eliminating the processes involved: decreasing the risk of fashion obsolescence, quantities for manufacture, complexity of distribution and the consumption of product; eliminating certain stages altogether and limiting the brand as custodians of marketing. Some brands are discovering a new ‘enemy’ – the very people they are trying to sell to. Keywords: fashion supply chain, virtual world, consumer, ‘prosumers’, co-creation, fashion designers

Profiling the prosumer in the workplace : an exploration of traits, self-efficacy and motivators

This research has built on the growing interest in the prosumer in the workplace – prosumers are those users with high technological skills who both produce and consume their own technology solutions. Prosumers are leaders in their industrial or professional fields and who expect to obtain significant benefit from innovating. The literature reveals that commercially attractive products tend to be developed by prosumers who are at the leading edge of important marketplace trends and therefore this group is increasingly important. This study surveyed prosumers across a variety of occupations and workplaces and explored the motivators and personality traits of the prosumer.

Creative Labor in Cinema and Media Industries

Introduction The rapidly burgeoning popularity of cinema at the beginning of the 20th century favored industrialized modes of creativity organized around large production studios that could churn out a steady stream of narrative feature films. By the mid-1910s, a handful of Hollywood studios became leaders in the production, distribution, and exhibition of popular commercial movies. In order to serve incessant demand for new titles, the studios relied on a set of conventions that allowed them to regularize production and realize workplace efficiencies. This entailed a socialized mode of creativity that would later be adopted by radio and television broadcasters. It would also become a model for cinema and media production around the world, both for commercial and state-supported institutions. Even today the core tenets of industrialized creativity prevail in most large media enterprises. During the 1980s and 1990s, however, media industries began to change radically, driven by forces of neoliberalism, corporate conglomeration, globalization, and technological innovation. Today, screen media are created both by large-scale production units and by networked ensembles of talent and skilled labor. Moreover, digital media production may take place in small shops or via the collective labor of media users or fans who have attracted attention due to their hyphenated status as both producers and users of media (i.e., “prosumers”). Studies of screen media labor fall into five conceptual and methodological categories: historical studies of labor relations, ethnographically inspired investigations of workplace dynamics, critical analyses of the spatial and social organization of labor, and normative assessments of industrialized creativity.

Cuando el miedo invade la ficción. Análisis de Perdidos (Lost) y de otros quality dramas de la era Post 11S.

521 p.

Theorising and analysing digital labour: from global value chains to modes of production

This paper considers the following question—where do computers, laptops and mobile phones come from and who produced them? Specific cases of digital labour are examined—the extraction of minerals in African mines under slave-like conditions; ICT manufacturing and assemblage in China (Foxconn); software engineering in India; call centre service work; software engineering at Google within Silicon Valley; and the digital labour of internet prosumers/users. Empirical data and empirical studies concerning these cases are systematically analysed and theoretically interpreted. The theoretical interpretations are grounded in Marxist political economy. The term ‘global value chain’ is criticised in favour of a complex and multidimensional understanding of Marx’s ‘mode of production’ for the purposes of conceptualizing digital labour. This kind of labour is transnational and involves various modes of production, relations of production and organisational forms (in the context of the productive forces). There is a complex global division of digital labour that connects and articulates various forms of productive forces, exploitation, modes of production, and variations within the dominant capitalist mode of production.

Análise do produtor-consumidor enquanto interveniente da rede elétrica inteligente

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica Ramo de Energia

O prosumidor e as Relações Públicas na era da convergência midiática

This study supports the role of Public Relations within Organizations, inserted in the context of the media convergence age, in which all the medias complement each other and can be used together to achieve a given goal. The approach is exposed after reflection on consumers’ specificity and identity, in addition to an approach about media convergence age characteristics, such as collective intelligence, participatory culture and affective economy. Throughout this paper, it is also discussed the concept of Transmedia Storytelling and how consumers and communicators stories have become especially important in the convergence age. In this context, consumers are understood as prosumers, since they infer and influence brands, organizations or products, by using words. We showed that, because of those prosumers narratives, an organization may became susceptible to their image destruction in a short period of time or get more acceptance and profitability. Thus, Public Relations presents itself as a communication professional that can use several corporate strategies in the relationship between organizations and their different target audience

Guidelines for Accessibility to Microblogging: an Integral Approach

Microblogging is one of the most popular user-generated media, hence its accessibility has a large impact for users. However, the accessibility of this medium is poor in practice, due to the combination of bad practices by different agents ranging from the providers that host microblogging services to prosumers that post contents to them. Here we present an accessibility-oriented model of microblogging services, analyze the impact of its components, and propose guidelines for each of them to meet accessibility requirements. In particular, we base on an study we have performed on Twitter, one of the most-relevant microblogging platform, to identify good and bad practices in microblogging content generation regarding accessibility in microblogging content generation.

Developing front-end Web 2.0 technologies to access services, content and things in the future Internet

The future Internet is expected to be composed of a mesh of interoperable web services accessible from all over the web. This approach has not yet caught on since global user?service interaction is still an open issue. This paper states one vision with regard to next-generation front-end Web 2.0 technology that will enable integrated access to services, contents and things in the future Internet. In this paper, we illustrate how front-ends that wrap traditional services and resources can be tailored to the needs of end users, converting end users into prosumers (creators and consumers of service-based applications). To do this, we propose an architecture that end users without programming skills can use to create front-ends, consult catalogues of resources tailored to their needs, easily integrate and coordinate front-ends and create composite applications to orchestrate services in their back-end. The paper includes a case study illustrating that current user-centred web development tools are at a very early stage of evolution. We provide statistical data on how the proposed architecture improves these tools. This paper is based on research conducted by the Service Front End (SFE) Open Alliance initiative.

Business models in the Smart Grid: challenges, opportunities and proposals for prosumer profitability.

Considering that non-renewable energy resources are dwindling, the smart grid turns out to be one of the most promising and compelling systems for the future of energy. Not only does it combine efficient energy consumption with avant-garde technologies related to renewable energies, but it is also capable of providing several beneficial utilities, such as power monitoring and data provision. When smart grid end users turn into prosumers, they become arguably the most important value creators within the smart grid and a decisive agent of change in terms of electricity usage. There is a plethora of research and development areas related to the smart grid that can be exploited for new business opportunities, thus spawning another branch of the so-called ?green economy? focused on turning smart energy usage into a profitable business. This paper deals with emerging business models for smart grid prosumers, their strengths and weaknesses and puts forward new prosumer-oriented business models, along with their value propositions.

Los nuevos prosumidores: audiencias de la televisión social. Análisis de Operación Palace en Twitter

En esta contribución se presentan las mediciones sobre la repercusión en Twitter del programa Operación Palace: la verdadera historia del 23f’ emitido en La Sexta el pasado 23 de febrero. Se pretende conocer la actividad de varios perfiles, etiquetas y usuarios. Para realizar el seguimiento se ha utilizado la herramienta creada por la empresa Pirendo. España es uno de los países que registra mayor índice de comentarios en Twitter sobre programas de televisión durante el prime time y Salvados, programa vinculado a este ‘especial’ documental es uno de las emisiones que más impacto consigue en las redes. Así podremos conocer su estrategia, presencia e interacciones en la red Twitter.