Filed under: Research, Trends by Digado

The prosumer - The consumer with the ability to produce. After the recent ‘hype’ most will be familiar with the word. According to Wikipedia the defenition is:

“Prosumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word producer or professional with the word consumer. The term has taken on multiple conflicting meanings: the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer (producer–consumer) as having greater independence from the mainstream economy”

The concept of the prosumer is an encouraging thought for those who believe in a user generated world such as Second Life. A world where every consumer has the ability to create and sell content on the spot. The prosumer, to many, also includes the word professional. Does the concept assume we, the consumers will be able to create professional content?

A lay-out of the prosumer. The lurker searches and consumes but doesn’t participate in any way. The participant places comments and stimulates content creation. The amateur produces content without financial reward and the professional makes content for a living. In between is the area of the prosumer.

I recently debated with Harro Heijboer on this topic. He claims the prosumer does not exsist. His first argument is: ‘we’, the consumer - are looking for passive entertainment. The vast majority does not want to produce content. If we look at Flickr for instance, only 0.4% of the entire community actually participates.

His second argument is: the prosumer will never be able to create content that measures up to professional content. Therefor it will always be second choice, a niche. On youTube 7 out of the 10 ‘most watched’ are still made by professional companies. The vast majority is junk, only cluttering the internet with reports about their cats noone cares about.

I think there is something to be said for both arguments, but I don’t agree on his conclusion. Just because the prosumer is only a low percentage of the consumers at the moment does not mean he doesn’t exist. If we consider bloggers to be the prosumers of media, there are more prosumers then professionals working in that particular industry.

Furthermore, this low percentage of prosumers amongst all those Flickr users, have created the largest repository of photos in the history of photography. On youTube we see 3 out of 10 low budget ‘amateur’ clips competing with the million dollar investments of large (music) companies. Everyday, the prosumer will learn, and learn faster then the professional because there are simply a lot more of them (and they work together). They have a passion for creating the content they provide, sometimes an unmatched expertise because they don’t have to deal with targets, efficiency or mass-market research figures (Wikipedia).

Which is where another question arises. Assuming the prosumer is in between the consumer and the professional (instead of the producer in a more general way), when does a person cross the line of becoming a professional? When they start making money? When they dedicate more then X hours a week producing? The internet has brought us, the consumer, the means to produce, and as a result it has blurred the lines between the amateur and the professional. We find these prosumers in Second Life every day, and I dont think it will be too long until we see them reach the ‘professional gaming standards’ for graphics and content.

Here is the inspirational ‘Prometeus’ scenario that explains why the prosumer will be such an important player in the near future.

Posted on: November 28, 2007 | Share on: