Mark this word in your mental diaries: Prosumer.
The word is a combination of producer and consumer that perfectly describe the millions of participants in the Web 2.0 revolution.
It’s not a new word, but it’s a word that will become the norm in the coming years. It’s already being used by companies such as Sony to describe users of video cameras.
Earlier in the week, Read/Write Web featured a video from Davide Casaleggio where Prosumer is featured strongly. Video as below, other highlights include world domination by Google in 2050 and Lawrence Lessig becoming US Secretary of Justice in 2020 and declaring copyright illegal. I’ve not been able to get Prosumer out of my head since watching this video so expect it to be dropped regularly in future posts.
This video is great, although we all know that Google will not buy they Microsoft in the future. They will buy Yahoo of course!
http://en.wikip...g/wiki/Prosumer
It has been around since the early 70s according to
Wikipedia
and if you check Google News, there are dozens of current stories using that term
prosumer means professional+consumer=”advanced consumer” for Sony… It is used for high-end products (eg. $1000 camera). Not producer+consumer
This term has been around for decades, and it is a combination of professional and consumer, not producer and consumer. Usually used to designate products that are either feature-rich versions of mainstream tech items or chopped-down professional versions priced at something that an affluent consumer can justify.
I’m with loic. Prosumer is Professinal + Consumer, and is used to denote a/v equipment that is expensive enough to be out of the range of the average joe, but does not have professional level quality. A good example of this is the Nikon D80 is a consumer level DSLR. The D2x is Pro-level. The D200 is Prosumer.
You have an interesting concept, but you need a new name, cause that one is taken.
You’re both right. Alvin Toeffler coined the phrase in his 1980 book, “The Third Wave,” referring to consumers taking a more active role in the production of “mass customized” products, hence producer + consumer. Since then, however, the phrase has migrated toward professional + consumer by electronics manufacturers who needed a way to refer to their high-end consumer segment. Interestingly, so many of the products in this category (DSLRs, video cameras, audio, etc.) amount to “production” (of media) when they are used, that a true fusion of the two meanings has emerged in this product category. See http://prosumer...tion.com/about/ for more.
Pretty cool video – reminiscent of that GoogleZon one from a while back. I agree with the digital paper and news stuff but it certainly gets less concievable the further it goes out. I think the biggest toss up here is whether Second Life will prove that long lasting.
Prometeus? Whatever happened to the grid?
Cool video.
Would have been better if they didn’t get Marble-Mouth McGee to narrate it.
Since “prosumer” is already taken, I propose the “consumer + producer crowd” claim the new term “conducer“. You read it here first.
As of right now, Google finds 49,900 instances of conducer. I expect this will rapidly grow as the latest Fatty McDrudgism sweeps the Web.
Awesome video… I agree with webomatica #6 regardin googlezon, I was thinking the same thing.
Anybody who can write is now an author? Anybody who can draw is now an artist? Anybody who can shoot a video is now a cinematographer?
I love the fact that technology empowers people with tools to produce content and to distribute it to a wide audience, but the Web 2.0 kool aid drinkers seem completely ignorant to the fact that most of the content being “produced” by Duncan’s “prosumers” is utter crap. The good, valuable content is swimming in a sea of poor, worthless content. Is that something to celebrate?
As much as I think there are significantly positive aspects to the concepts that drive Web 2.0, I find myself agreeing more and more with Andrew Keen, author of “Cult of the Amateur: How today’s Internet is killing our culture.” Just because more and more people have the ability to produce content doesn’t mean that they’re capable of producing content of value. Why should we marginalize the professionals who on the whole do a better job and who have often devoted their education and life to the task? We want to “democratize” media and make information “free” but the truth is that content worth consuming isn’t free to produce and you typically get what you pay for.
In terms of the video posted: I can’t help but thinking that the world the “prosumer” who created it envisions actually looks quite bleak. We’re “connected” to each other in virtual worlds but are disconnected from reality and in fact, our own selves as true individuals. Is that worth looking forward to?
It is a lot of speculation in regards to the way the internet is going. Who really knows what will be about in 5 to 10 years time. Who really cares. Thats what makes what is happening right now so exciting.
You never know, a Google killer could be just around the corner.
I cannot find a better example of why most nerds have absolutely no business in the world of finance.
Google buying Microsoft? This would only be possible if Google’s market cap increased dramatically (which I think it will) AND Microsoft still had a valuable market to capture. You don’t just go around making acquisitions to prove you are a corporate badass.
Please tell me the person who screencasted that video was high on drugs. It’s sickening to see people feel enlightened after watching such speculative garbage.
interesting. i better start reinvesting in Google now.
I agree with others. The term has been around forever. It has been used by Canon and Sony (and many others) in the digital photography and videography business.
Duncan probably should have done a little research before he starting article with an inaccurate lead in. It makes the rest of the article not credible (didn’t want to say incredible!). So I have to ask: Duncan, what rock have you been under?
Reminds me of Mary Jo Foley’s article on Apple OS X Leopard:
http://blogs.zd...icrosoft/?p=505
Being a Microsoft fangirl, she thinks OS X looks like Vista!
What ever happened to journalists that check their facts?
The origins of the word may be professional + consumer but in the Web 2.0 context it’s producer + consumer.
Hey Scott,
It will be possible its 2015…lets wait till then…..
same thing has been said when google came into search engine arena..and now everyone uses google for everything they want to search…
Who 10 years ago could imagine at least 10% of what Internet has to offer today? Same story will repeat but much faster, say in 5 years you will see the services you never thought about these days…
Thanks for the link Duncan, appreciate it. And I agree with you on ‘prosumer’, in Web context it’s always meant ‘producer + consumer’. In fact it’s very much aligned with the ‘read/write’ concept, which of course I have a vested interest in
I think this is a nod to the digital economy. Great video, very well spoken.
This term is right from Don Tapscott’s Wikinomics. The examples used in the video were prime examples in the book. I read it over the winter, it’s a cool read, I’d recommend checking it out if this video tickles your interests.
“…… with BBC, CNN and CCTV”?
Though China has >1.3Billian people, yet CCTV is not so influential like BBC and CNN. But, I am sure CCTV will survive much longer as the two.
few years I’ve predicted War is over… WAR ERA… no more violence…
Kids can look back dinosaur wars and humans.
The video is really cool apart from one thing Google can’t buy MS.
technology is fascinating,
the new age, peace and love
I hope…
How about ‘crideo’
means ‘crap video’
As usual, Arrington posts a blog entry that is exciting, emotional, and wrong.
And as usual Greg fails to check that Michael Arrington didn’t even post this.
I believe the term “prosumer” was made popular by futurist Alvin Toffler in his trilogy:
1. The Future Shock
2. The Third Wave
3. Shift of Power
He said it was a combination of the words producer plus consumer. He said in the future we would the producing and consuming our own services. And example was the trend the ubiquitous “do it yourself” kits. We are increasingly doing things ourselves instead of hiring professional help.
Blogging is a perfect example of this trend. We produce the news in the Internet, and at the same time consume those same news. Slowly, the professional journalist is being set aside.
I think Mr. Toffler was correct in his assessment.
My two cents on this subject.
Omar.-
OK then. If advertising is dead where does Google get the money to buy MSFT?
In fact, how is any of this financed? Tip jars?
Boss, what would these web 2.0 prosumers be doing when others adopt web 2.0. Any Idia.
http://www.tekn...ld.blogspot.com
I did not see the video. I do not have the bandwidth to see it.
But I do not need to see the video. What is horrible is that I can not disagree with anything that video says (through your eyes and ears) despite me being a fanboy of Microsoft.
Omar is bang on the money, the first place I saw the term was in ‘future shock’. Well worth it to go through Toffler’s stuff again. He was talking about this stuff 35 years ago!
Sony may use “prosumer” to describe their video cameras, but they have not arrived yet. (Still “prosumer” cameras have already arrived and they may be even beyond “prosumer”). Current YouTube videos reflect the “consumer” quality. “Prosumer” videos will arrive when YouTube videos, upload speeds and download speeds support them.
Sorry, anyone that has the slightest interest in photography, video, and audio knows the term prosumer to mean professional+consumer – the fact some attempt to make it mean something different in web 2.0 really won’t matter. Worse, these web 2.0 folk are mis using the term about video – so odds are high it will be noticed. Don’t like sony? Then google “fujifilm prosumer”.
“Anybody who can write is now an author? Anybody who can draw is now an artist? Anybody who can shoot a video is now a cinematographer?”
Yes. Same way techcrunch is the press.
Quality, talent, and skill was never a requirement for any of these.
*Yawn*.
People really need to read statistics on who is actually producing content on the web, who is interactive, etc. I think we’d all be really surprised at the results of this. It was just in Wired Magazine. I am so glad somebody finally published something on it. Not everybody produces or creates online. There are a ton of passive users who could care less to.
It drives me bananas when people fixate and focus on one component of something, like MySpace to social networking, or interactive to web user. Saying that this is where everybody is going is like saying that MySpace is the only social network.
We will likely see increased prevalence of prosumer-style web applications as technologies such as implicit prefiltering and automatic republishing are further embraced by both developers and innovative Internet companies.
“but in the Web 2.0 context it’s producer + consumer.”
LOL! How fucking lame.
Do you morons just sit around and make this shit up? The word has been around, already has a context and just because you masturbate over “Web 2.0″ it doesn’t change shit.
What a fucking putz.
latin roots:
sumere= take up (use)
ducere= lead (in)
pro=for
con=with
(via french and middle english)
this is not rocket science
but neither is it lego
i think you have all been conduced?
(led up the garden path)
Please, for the love of God, just type out “producer/consumer” and do not force-feed another inane buzzword into the nomenclature. I smell a “Web 2.0 Dictionary” book deal in the works.
“but in the Web 2.0 context it’s producer + consumer.”
Uh – No. Prosumer is Professional+Consumer. If you came from the professional design//photo//video world you would know this and not try to toss off an excuse that under the guise of “Web 2.0″ it has a different meaning. Last I checked “Web 2.0″ was an abused marketing term that in itself has been reduced to having little meaning.
Is this the new game of “Web 2.0″ now? Mashing up existing definitions of established terms to make them what you want? Actually – craparama! It’s happened to “beta” already in the “Web 2.0″ world.
This would be a great topic. What other words have had their meanings reworked under the guise of “Web 2.0″ can everyone think of?
Technology and the long tail have created a threat to the better trained and better funded masses. Just as anyone with 5 grand can launch a web based application, anyone with an internet connection can be a writer, a cinematographer, designer. The oddline art world, where one man’s trash is another man’s sculpture has been embracing the ambiguous distinction betwen professionals and amateurs for years. Deal with it.
Nice video. Plenty entertaing.
++Drama 2.0
his voice / did add a little /
– but it could use some clarification .. his pronounciation fo “Tyrannasourous” is as bad as my spelling of it –
- RB
I echo many of the comments here. It is the height of arrogance to take an existing word with an existing meaning and try to co-opt it. I realize that it’s tempting to wield one’s influence in this way, to try to re-mint a term, but it’s also irresponsible. We are all custodians of the language we speak and write and this sort of behaviour demonstrates an abuse of this trust.
Arrogant? No, this is how language evolves. Like the word “decide” used to mean “to cut away from,” eventually evolved into an abstract concept of cutting oneself away from options. So goes almost every other word in English that isn’t of Anglo-Saxon origins. Freezing language is to freeze evolution of thought. Just ask the French.
If you read the Wikipedia article you’ll find out that the consumer+producer meaning came first and the consumer+professional meaning of prosumer came later.
Haha, this thread is awesome. I can’t speak as eloquently as Whatever but his point is more or less how I feel. The term has been around forever and instead of matter-of-factly saying “the newcontext” just own up to the fact that maybe the ‘publish’ button was clicked a little too hastily. We’re a forgiving bunch!
Alfred, is that truthy? Is Colbert behind this?
As the owner of prosume.com, I beg to differ with some of the posters here. Prosumer means professional consumer especially with regard to hi end electronics goods.
However there is a secondary meaning that has been growing in use since the late 90s and that is of the producer consumer or the consumer who doesnt just accept what they are given but who actively researches the market and seeks to influence the market. More recently with the rise of Web 2.0 and crowdsourcing we are seeing the new prosumerism – people don’t just buy goods (accept what is given) they prosume them, and influence what is made. I blogged about this over a year ago. Particular examples of prosumerism would be Crowdspirit which is seeking to democratise the manufacturing of electronic goods.
Consider the model T. Any colour you like so long as it is black. Now when you buy a car there are countless modifications you can have. This customisation of new products and consumers driving product creation is prosumerism.
Hey Craig, your ownership of a domain name notwithstanding, your explanation of ‘producer consumers’ feels awkward. If you are implying that today’s consumers do more research, and have a greater degree of influence over the development of the products they buy, then the term should really ‘professional consumer’. Moreover, there is a disconnect between the real and online worlds that should be acknowledged. You can’t cite cars as an example of the influence of prosumers, since they had nothing to do with the production. This thread is trying to show the role that consumers of media are playing in a web 2.0 world – that is they *are* playing a role in producing what they consume. I still think it’s a missappropriation of the word.
Duncan, the correct word should be “pubsumer” – the portmanteau of “publisher” and “consumer.” It much more sense to use “publishers” to describe the web 2.0 users writing blogs, posting pictures, etc.