Monday, April 28, 2008

Produsage and Us


I thought I'd write another little blog concerning produsage and how it involves us, just in case you still think I can't spell or still don't know what exactly I mean. As stated in my previous blog, produsage is "the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement" (produsage.org). In other words produsage involves user led content creation.

Over the past few months and years user online creations have increased significantly, which has not gone unnoticed by the biggest companies in the business. For example, only recently MySpace has launched its promised developer platform
which enables third-party developers (as in us, the users) to create applications for the social networking site. "With MDP (MySpace Developer Platform) you can create compelling new products that integrate directly into MySpace pages generating worldwide exposure!" (MySpace.com). This new platform follows in the footsteps of Facebook, which is riddled with applications, asking you to buy your friends, take quizzes, throw a sheep at your friends, find out your IQ or send plant gifts to your friends. Facebook's recent revamp of its developer platform which has seen hundreds of companies set up shop on the site. In other words, SPAM SPAM SPAM!! MySpace, Facebook and other top networks are now competing in comparing who is the most open.

Anyway, back to produsage. We, as users and consumers and now also producers, have more power than ever. We influence media companies, making influential input into what kind of content is created, often creating content ourselves. But Axel Bruns asks a good question, being : "Who controls the means of produsage?" Is it us, the consumers, or the media companies? I'd better let you read his article himself because he can, by far, explain it much better than me.


In my opinion, produsage/user led content creation plays an important role within today's media. The Internet has created an interactive audience and enabled our voices to be heard.

Completely off topic, before I finish up I also think I should explain the picture. I'm not a cat person as such, but my nickname is *Kat* and I thought this picture was just too cute! So yes, it are a fact :)

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