No, I read it on Wikipeida. It's true.

Produsage 

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Like we’ve discussed here before on SocialRamblings the Internet has made it easier than ever for society to achieve things. You no longer need to have a high degree in order to write for an encyclopaedia, no, all you need is Internet access. Wikipedia anyone? 

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This user lead content creation we all use today is called produsage. Wikipedia is one of the best and most well known examples of produsage in today’s society. Anyone with Internet access, educated or not, are able to add to and edit the worlds largest encyclopaedia, and for the most part it works. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t love Wikipedia. If a science-y article is too wordy to get your head around, try Simple Wikipedia. Produsage allows the consumer to become the producer and the resulting product is therefore what the consumer wants. It’s all the relevant information in one place, with easy to access links to related topics and references. Perhaps the best merit of websites like Wikipedia are the ease in which the information can be updated. If a new law has passed, record has been reached or a celebrity wins an award that information can be changed immediately. There’s no more waiting for a new edition, its there almost instantly. 

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The ease in which produsage allows anybody contribute may however, be its biggest flaw. Anyone can contribute anything, doesn’t mean that everything they contribute is going to be right. You can’t measure how much a user truly knows about a topic by their contributions, most of the time, if its there, you sort of believe it. Melbourne Comedian Dave Thornton acknowledges this, and makes jokes suggesting that each user should be given a specific font based on their intelligence level, a doctor, Times New Roman, an idiot, Wingdings.
Everyone’s heard of or seen something on Wikipedia that’s not right; some are more obvious then others. It’s a new age problem with produsage. Giving everyone access gives anyone the opportunity to change the program for better or worse. This may lead to an overall distrust of the system or program. Every teenager has heard (and ignored) their teachers tell them Wikipedia is not a reliable reference. 

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Wikipedia isn’t the only source of produsage on the Internet. Blogs and YouTube videos count too. It’s user based content creation. The parody’s and reviews all create a web of discussion, where users are able to post and explore their responses. This fits in with Henry Jenkins views on participatory culture. Participatory culture is essentially produsage. In participatory culture members contribute together and feel as if their contributions are both valued and important. Participatory culture also strongly supports creation by others. If you think about popularity of websites like YouTube that’s what you’re finding. A web of people, creating their own content and sharing it with the world.  

 

As for the future of produsage? I can’t see it slowing down. I think produsage will only continue to get bigger and bigger and fill more spaces online. 

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