In 1980 the futurist Alvin Toffler came up with the term Prosumer in his book The Third Wave. The word Prosumer is a blend between consumer and producer. Toffler used the term to describe a type of consumer who get involved in the production process. Link.
The most famous websites are based on prosumer work are YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook. Without the massive video uploaded from users (consumers) YouTube won’t be that popular. So in this situation the prosumer is the producer and the consumer of information. Also Apple don`t make iPhone applications, customers do that. Also with Google for example Google translating allows customers to involve in the service, not to mention Wikipedia. All of the above are type of Crowdsourcing websites.
In the above YouTube video Jeff Howe argues that “communities are able to form simply out of shared interest, a shared passion for a hoppy or craft”. To Howe the Internet made it possible to for a virtual crowd that allows people to come together and share interest. According to Howe Crowdsourcing is “the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated employee and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call”. But the question is why would we do it? Why would a person upload a video on YouTube for free, so more users “customers” can play it, while YouTube stick ads all around and get paid for it from the advertisers! The most logical view to see it is as a win-win situation since we get entertained for free and for example in websites like Answers.com we get all kind of information for free. But also we should not forget the classic con of this which is basically with the example of Answers.com, is it reliable?
Finally, we were always some type of prosumers, think about when you read a novel, your imagination produce the visual side of the story!
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