Yay for produsage!
Until recently, you could go to the Barbie website and customize your own doll, which would then be shipped out to you. Devastated that I no longer had the chance to create my own image in plastic (they never make redheaded Barbies, it was up to me), I snooped around Google for a while, looking for other things I could design online and have sent to me. The ‘design-your-own’ opportunities ranged from Converse sneakers, to wedding dresses, and from garden plans to tattoos.
These days, it seems you can design pretty much anything you want online, and manufacturers will build it to your specifications and send it to you. You need not even leave your computer chair.
According to Bauwens (in Bruns): ‘In industrial processes, we could see the design phase being separated from the material production phase’. Bauwens uses the example of cars being designed by open source communities, and then produced by a third party who has access to the necessary capital. This example is evidence of produsage turning artifacts into products – the ever-evolving product created by produsers is being frozen in time by request. Manufacturers are no longer telling consumers what to buy, rather consumers (as produsers) are telling manufacturers what to make.
As can be seen from its online popularity, the process of turning artifacts into products is quickly becoming the new way to consume. But how does it work? According to Bruns:
The core business of the new production service industries will be to convert the intangible artifacts of the ongoing produsage-based design processes taking place in the informational realm into tangible products – that is, to produce the artifacts of produsage.
So, instead of going online and selecting a product from the display of what is available, you can log on, collaborate with others to create something new, and send the design to a manufacturer to build. Like Bauwens said (above), the design phase is being separated from the material production phase. Produsers are now designing, both individually and collaboratively, thus removing the design phase from the manufacturer. This new process is often aided by producers, as highlighted by Bruns:
In many of its native environments, the community of produsers is already working more speedily and more effectively on the creation, sharing and development of new information and knowledge resources that conventional produsers are able to, and for such producers, their business is rapidly converting from one based on content production to one which provides services to aid the community in its produsage efforts.
As could be seen from the old Barbie site, the doll’s producer, Mattel, recognized the desire for Barbie fans to create their own dolls. Rather than forcing their own creations down the fans’ throats, they created an online program that allowed consumers to create their own dolls, which Mattel would then produce, and send out to them. Though this opportunity is no longer available, many other producers have recognized the new design-your-own trend, and help, rather than hinder, consumers (as produsers).
Through produsage, aspirations to create something new and individual, collaborate with others to come up with a super-product, or even realize childhood dreams of creating your own Barbie doll, can be realized.
A really interesting read Maddy! I really enjoyed your discussion about the consumers dictation of their own wants and needs to consumers, and the mental picture that followed of a little girl shoving her DIY Barbie down Mr Mattel’s throat. It was a different viewpoint than the one I discussed in my own blog. I focussed mainly on DIY websites offering platforms to potential producers, and the commercialisaition of the knowledge blueprint.
I agree that society has gone nuts with the DIY fad. I was watching Better Homes and Gardens last week, with the DIY girl showing people how to make everything from jewelry boxes to childrens sock puppets. Its interesting how the internet has allowed the collective intelligence community to take this one step further and offer individually tailored sites for specialist wants and needs. It’s like a digital Wall Mart injected with super strength growth hormones, because I believe that this kind of consumerism could not exist in a physical capacity.
I too agree with Bauwer’s labeling this shift as the “artifacts of produsage”. I believe that without this shift, people would continue to be confined by the traditional 20th century model of produsage, and not be able to move into the new “user generation”.