In this chapter (Page 124):
Many firms equate prosumption with “customer centricity,” where companies decide the basics are and customers may modify certain elements. Today, a more connected and often younger generation of producer-consumers is one of the groups revolutionizing the way companies relate to their customers. In the new model, prosumers add value throughout the product lifecycle:
What are the latest prosumption examples? How can companies take advantage? What role should companies play in online “prosumer communities,” where customers swap tools, tips, and product hacks?
Before any product goes out the warehouse door, and before the end-user can have a hack at it, a product will pass through a few key stages (most notably research and development, manufacturing and sales and marketing) that are critically dependent upon information technology software. In the past, this software was parceled out by proprietary vendors in large, unwieldy chunks, with the sure knowledge that the manufacturer's investment in that technology effectively locked them into a long-term relationship with the vendor.
These days, the software sphere is seeing a dramatic rise in service-oriented architecture (SOA) and software-as-a-service (SaaS), both of which provide a new level of agility and freedom (and, especially if open sourced, a lower cost profile) for manufacturers.
The coming tide of employees that is Net Gen has a remarkable part to play in this continuing power shift. Net Gen is not just expecting a new level of interactivity from their working life -- they're more comfortable than any previous generation has been with creating that interactivity themselves.
Most of the Net Gen workforce has at least some level of knowledge about software code (from customizing myspace pages, for example) and, just as earlier generations disassembled radios and tape players to "get at the guts" and see how they worked, most Net Genners have little fear when it comes to toying around with technology for useful or recreational purposes. (After all, the term ""script kiddie to describe young hackers didn't originate out of nowhere.)
This generational comfortability dovetails nicely with the rise of modular, customized SOA applications in the work-a-day world, and as these proactive software users move into the workplace, employers should expect to see--and take advantage of -- these young employees' inherent abilities to change the software products to fit the business processes that make up their workday.
All of this blurring of the IT lines portends a further rise in efficiency and productivity as smart managers allow these prosumer/producers to adapt their native tools to fit the demands of their jobs.
TuxPhone is a project by Homebrew Mobile Phone Club to develop an open-source cell phone. The market for cellphones is notoriously anti-consumer, since relatively small number of major phone manufacturers seem to conspire with an even smaller number of cellular service providers in any given market to limit the choices available to consumers and maximize the drain on their customer's wallets. Cellphones are almost entirely befuddled with proprietary hardware and proprietary software, to the point that it seems every phone in the market has its own proprietary charger/ ac adapter - so a simple device that if standardized would cost less than 5 dollars can't be found for less than 20.
As an alternative, Tuxphone becomes an "open source cooperative". To me, it is an interesting one. First, success of a DIY phone would show that prosuming is not limited to intangible environments, and that hardware is hackable just fine (refrigerators and TV's might be next). Second, it will settle scores with the phone industry's 100-year old attitude of "you can have any phone you want as long as it's black" -- in this sense, even if the project fails, it may cause the cell phone industry to fundamentally rethink its business.
What is interesting today is the shift towards the communicating company. On their corporate websites and blogs, many enterprises are trying to share insight about their field of operation with their customers. In order to appear as a reference, companies have to develop and even more importantly show that they master specific skills and competencies.
Through this communication process, numerous ideas pop out. Blog comments are an amazing place where customers and prospects can share and develop ideas with established companies. The next step will probably be in collaborative specifications building on a dedicated wiki. The customer writes a requirements brief, then the producer edits and suggests modifications, and so on... What's more, in situations involving many parts (say, a designer, a producer, the client and its advisor for instance) a wiki could make the specifications-building process much easier.
The companies that embrace and encourage prosumption will have to face some interesting challenges very early on such as how to deal with intellectual property rights and the desire to protect their creations with copyrights. Will traditional companies be able to really embrace this approach and protect their interests in the tried and true ways of the past? Competition will be raised to a new level if designers, producers and others collaborate to shift the direction of a product from multiple companies in the same way. How will they differentiate themselves? If they don't listen to the potential overwhelming input from the masses, will they be accused of non-prosumption practices and will this reflect poorly on them?
The virtual world Second Life is possibly the ultimate in post-market prosumption. Imagine you were a company selling widgets with which an ambitious and creative group of customers built a whole new planet on?
Second Life is such a business. Second life sells virtual real estate which is then developed by its purchasers into entire communities, economies and eventually nations by its purchasers (see this recent article). Now Second Life is taking prosumption to the next level by announcing they will open source their code. Opening their source code offers new peer production opportunities (see The Peer Pioneers). This should also make the Second Life grid a more viable platform for open collaboration (see Platforms for Participation). UNICEF's Second Life venture in January 2007 allowed teenagers to work in teams and build an HIV/AIDS hospital. (See article) The project helps teens co-create what UNICEF calls a 'world fit for children' and take on challenging global issues.
References:
www.theglobeandmail.com
One of the larger issues that remains unresolved is how to properly compensate those who contribute meaningful and desirable content to platforms.
One model in an embryonic state is sharing ad revenue: The content creator posts an article on a platform that surrounds the article with click-through ads (example:Helium.com).
The Helium-hosted article is rated by readers, allowing the better articles to rise to the top of rankings for the topic in question. Readers of the article might click through on one or more of the ads surrounding the article. The author and Helium share in click-through revenues.
This model might work for writers, but it doesn't prevent the reader from copying an article out of the site and sharing it via some other means with others (email, personal blog), thereby depriving the author of the opportunity for other readers to click on ads and contribute to the author's revenue stream.
The problem of posting up content and not getting rewarded is even more acute with music and video, and especially so when the artist did not consent to making his work available on-line i.e. illegal file sharing.
At the time of this writing, illegal file sharing is rampant and legal methods of downloading music and video are hampered by Digital Rights Management (DRM) issues:
For example, music purchased through Apple's on-line music store iTunes can only be played on computers using the iTunes software and on the Apple iPod portable music players. Consumers who prefer alternative media players cannot transfer or play back their purchased music on non-Apple software or devices because of Apple's proprietary DRM implementation (ironically called "Fairplay").
The following is offered as three routes to a more equitable recognition of an artist's content on a consumer's playback device:
Model One: Global DRM Standard
Using currently available technology, with low transmission bandwidth still necessitating local file storage:
Model Two: Performance Rights Tracking
Using the current radio model (portion of radio ad revenue is turned over to national performing rights organizations such as ASCAP, BMI, who in turn redistribute on a pro-rated basis to record labels and their artists - the more frequently aired songs get a higher percentage of the distributed revenue). Low transmission bandwidth still necessitates local storage:
In the future, wireless-based ultra high-speed broadband is available anywhere and everywhere. Local storage is no longer necessary. All media is streamed to any device on demand.
Page Last Updated: May 10 10:35am by Brad Kenney