Saturday, May 10, 2008

Web Friendly Or Not?

Its 7.30pm on a Tuesday night and my mother has called for me to come up for dinner at least three times. Despite the rising frustration in her tone, I respond for the third time that “I’ll be up in just a sec”. Glued to my laptop screen, I am busy updating my facebook, downloading on ITunes and bidding for a dress on Ebay. Fed up with her unsuccessful attempts, I hear my mother stomping down the stairs. Bursting into my room she finds me with my laptop and shouts “What do you find so fascinating with that thing?!”

Where do I start? There is an endless list of things I find fascinating with the Web but it’s no use trying to explain this to my mother. The truth is, I easily spend at least 4 hours a day surfing the Web and it has become such an integral part of my everyday life, I would find it hard to function without it! My mother on the other hand, has an email account which she hardly ever checks and that’s about it.

This common scenario highlights two realities. Firstly, my ability to act as a ‘produser’ on the Web (Bruns, 2008) and secondly, the digital divide that exists between my generation and that of my mothers.

This divide exists not because of my mother’s hostility towards produsage but rather her lack of knowledge and familiarity with the relevant practices. Not long ago, a traditional production process existed whereby customers remained ‘at a significant distance from the original producer’ (Bruns, 2008). Because of this drastic evolution and subsequent digital divide, Bruns (2008) points out that ‘it is necessary (especially for educational institutions) to ensure that a wide cross-section of society is capable of participating effectively in produsage environments’.

In my last blog, I explored the example of the TV show Underbelly and discussed its banning from screens in Victoria. Despite the aim of preventing viewing, this banning led to those who were allowed to watch the show making it available online for those who weren’t. Consequently, the first episode of Underbelly was one of the most downloaded shows online (Sternberg, 2008). For the Generation C that Bruns discusses in Produsage: Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content Creation (2008), this would seem an obvious outcome and indeed this is an example of how ‘negative efforts to undermine produsage… may also accelerate the prevailing trend towards produsage’ (Bruns, 2008).

In conclusion, it is evident that a large portion of the population underestimates the potential of the Web and do not actively participate in produsage environments. This would seem to be the result of not only hostility but also inexperience. We have seen such a drastic transformation in the ways the Web can be used that it is necessary ‘to ensure that a wide cross-section of society is capable of participating effectively in produsage environments’ (Bruns, 2008). Until this is achieved, produsage will remain a foreign practice for certain groups in society and the ‘present shift away from industrial modes of production and towards collaborative, user-led content creation’ (Bruns, 2008) will be stunted.

Till next time,
Annelise

Reference List

Bruns, A. 2008. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. http://produsage.org/files/Produsage%20-%20Introduction.pdf (accessed April 23, 2008)

Bruns, A. 2008. Produsage: Towards a Broader Framework for User-Led Content Creation. http://produsage.org/files/Produsage%20(Creativity%20and%20Cognition%202007).pdf (accessed April 23, 2008)

Sternberg, J. 2008. Introduction to Audiences. Brisbane: QUT. [Lecture: KCB301].

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