The new prosumer is truly here. Thinking about these words: consumer and prosumer, I can’t help myself—I have to check the latin word roots. Maybe I could make better meaning that way? Well the Latin sumere means to consume and the Latin pro means for or forward. So do I get forward consuming out of this? It seems maybe I do. The Lego example is a perfect example of this. Lego has been working on improving their products long before I amused myself for hours on end trying to build a structurally sound house out of my own Lego bricks. The idea that I now could go on-line and design the house I want to build and a program would design the kit and directions and mail me the kit the next day simply amazes me. Which sort of brings me back full circle to the client I mentioned earlier. Given that a software program exists to create or design just about anything you might want, why would someone hire an architectural planner for a remodeling project when they can buy a program at Office Depot that will do the very same thing—and for a much lower cost. It may even be possible that there is already an open-source platform for architectural design ideas. If there isn’t then therein might lie this client’s only opportunity to reap some success from her business idea of providing architectural remodeling design. Perhaps she could create an open-source platform with drawing tools and design ideas that can be customized to a user’s specifications. Instead she sits at the phone for the individual who just might have accidently found her website to gain new customers who are looking for expensive remodeling advice.
Ultimately, the examples provided make me think of forward-thinking consumers. Those consumers who know better what they want to consume than the organizations that provide the raw goods. While the I-phone had not yet been introduced at the time of publication, Wikinomics makes some very interesting predictions regarding where they say Apple is heading with the Ipod. At the time, an app that was a walking Wikipedia or even web browser was hard to imagine. Today it is common place; with most adults carry a smart phone that offers video texting, web browsing, calendar management and email all in one, not to mention their complete music library. As protective as Apple has been over elements of their IP, they have in fact loosened up a bit in the last couple of years—inviting users to submit their own I-phone applications and allowing them some level of compensation for their IP. In fact, I had lunch with someone just yesterday who had invented an I-phone app. Everyone is doing it.
The same is true with You-tube. What was once a loosely organized group of amateur movies is now the go-to service for on-line video of all types. Unfortunately not every post is meant for good. As evidenced by the recent case of Shirley Sherrod, who suffered at the hands of a right-wing blogger who chose to take her words completely out of context in a malicious manner in order to make a particular political statement. Before the truth came out, Ms. Sherrod was forced to resign and the Secretary of Agriculture was begging her forgiveness. So yes, prosumerism allows us to edit and even create out of whole-cloth news items on the internet, but it can get in the way of the truth, at times with serious consequences. I believe the same to be true of an tangible product as well. To a large degree, allowing the consumer to design their own products and the platform on which they use them does democratize things for the average consumer. But again I ask “Is this all for good, or should we have societal concerns”?
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