Thursday 2 February 2012

What is the meaning of 'Pro-sumer'?

The word is a combination of producer and consumer that perfectly describe the millions of participants in the Web 2.0 revolution; the consumer use the online technical devises to construct their own media products. The term came from Marshall McLuhan and Barrington Nevitt’s Take Today book published 1972 on page four, that with electrical technology, the consumer would become a producer. Alvin Tofflers book published in during 1980 called ‘The third Wave’, would coin it “prosumer”. His prediction is true today that the roles of producers and consumers would begin to blur and merge. However, in the book he refers to the group of people as “producing consumer”, this is when the prosumer creates goods for their own use and possibly to sell. For example, blogging is an online format based on our own personal subject matter, that can reach to thousands other user/prosumers online. I think prosumer means the transition from a passive consumers being passive are functioning as active participants in the process of online media products design and customization of the end product.
What people like Marshall McLuuhan and Berrington Nevitt predicted about the next generation of the internet were incredibly true , because web 2.0 in comparison web 1.0 is that it is digital-text flexible and easy for users to organised information/products online.
Wikipedia states- The term has also taken on multiple meanings in business and economics: 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. These differing meanings often describe the same people; consumers unusually interested in the products. It can also be used to differentiate the traditional passive consumer with an active consumer role more involved in the process, such as activity in the design or customization of the end product.

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