In his book "Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life and Beyond: From Production to Produsage" Axel Bruns discusses the future of produsage and how it might be adapted to commercial enterprises. He talks about examples presented by other authors like Hippel where produsage principles could be used in certain phases of the industrial process. Designing a product is essentially a process of sharing ideas, information and creativity. Produasge principles can supplant the traditional design process for any commercial endeavor. For example, a single-family home construction company is designing a new line of models for an upcoming home show. They want to come up with a different home design that maintains an architecturally pleasing look, but is also practical and houses new ages interior design concepts. The company could put a kernel of an idea out using Web 2.0 tools that suggests that they are wanting to build the perfect 21st century home. They could supply blueprints, budget information and photos of artists renderings and let the amateur/professional interior design and architect communities have at it.
The one area where this gets sticky is incentive. If the company makes money, who will want to donate their time to the project. This is where the commercial entities need to make some type of compromises when harvesting the hive.
You post some interesting thoughts here and I like your question about who will want to donate their time to a project where they are not getting paid. I think some educators find themselves in a similar situation. We spend countless hours designing content should we share it? What about copyright issues?
ReplyDeleteThat is a very good point. I have often thought that a website should be developed solely for educators to share material and thought. However, I do not think that it is realistic for those who put in a lot of hard work to voluntarily share their work. I think that it is important for an organization such as Teach for America to develop a site that provides materials free to all educators. Just a thought.
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