DIY Culture and Design
Modern Contemporary society coupled with constantly evolving technology,
Allowing you easy access to the DIY kind of life
I have finally reached my last blog, it has been a somewhat tiring and challenging journal, as I am new to all this blogging type stuff I have only just figured out how to add tags to my collection of works. Maybe I should of taken more notice in tutorials! Today I will be discussing DIY Culture and it’s scope, which has is increasing with the evolution of the internet.
In a this day and age, the internet has opened up a whole new meaning to DIY, it’s no longer about going down to your local Mitre 10 and buying some nails, glue and chipboard in a vain hope you will finish with a new dining room table, it’s now about hoping onto the net, fishing around for a bit and writing creating, criticizing, uploading, downloading and collaborating, with content others have produced and you are acting on. This idea has been termed produsage (Bruns 2008).
New media and especially web2.0 has allowed for the DIY culture to expand, it is more accessible. The fact we are here in university, blogging for an assignment demonstrates the role within society that new media is playing. Anyone can produce anything on the internet nowadays, with the digitized society, industries are being decentralized, and this is pushing us to produce more content.
The music industry is a fine example of how DIY culture and design is changing the way society works. With the internet, it is very simply to record yourself and put your music onto the web. Myspace and YouTube for example anyone can upload themselves, there is more scope to Do it yourself. This produsage has developed as the internet evolves. Web 2.0 has not only unlocked the gate so to speak but has pushed it open it front of us. User-led content is constantly becoming easier to create and more sophisticated.
DIY is everywhere and it’s brilliant.
DIY Culture and Design
Experts and the rest…
Experts and Amateurs
This week’s topic is about Experts and Amateurs. The internet has opened the gates to both; the concept of who is right and who has the most expert opinion has been turned upside down. The internet introduction of the internet has allowed for the development of the definition of expert to be questioned. Who is regarded as an expert in a world where anyone and everyone can express their opinion online?
Traditionally an expert is considered someone who has study and worked in a field for a large period of time and who knows and understands their chosen subject on a higher level than a normal lay person. However the internet has allowed for the definition of expert to broaden; now an expert could easily be seen as someone who knows copious amount s of information about star trek for instance. They may not have ever studied star trek on an educational level, but have pursued their interest so much that they now know everything there is to know about star trek. The internet allows these types of experts to convey there expertise through elements of the internet like, blogs, Wikipedia, forums and discussion boards. This has created a new form of expert.
Bruns discusses theses ideas in his book Blogs, Wikipedia, Second life and beyond, Bruns links the concepts of traditional experts and non-traditional experts, with the concept of produsage. One point he makes is that “Experts who refrain from participation in the key produsage projects in their field… in essence may be in a process of self-censoring themselves out of existence” This point interested me, It made me think , again of the definition of experts and it’s evolution, if an traditional expert, say a ancient historian specializing in Te Inca’s, whose knowledge would be useful on say Wikipedia, doesn’t commit or add to the produsage process, does this mean they are no longer an expert?, or has the idea of produsage simply broaden the definition of expert?
With the Introduction of the internet, followed by Web 2.0 and the idea of produsage, the concept of an expert has changed and broaden, the definition is no longer exclusive to a person with certain characteristics or education, but can be anyone who has the knowledge base, even without the credentials.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia, an emerging space filled with copious amounts of knowledge
Well I’ve reached my third blog and I’m feeling good. I’m slowly getting used to discussing the unit themes of KCB201 and this week I’ll be discussing the wonders of Wikipedia. I am also watching television, but the brilliant thing about TV is that you can use the add breaks of your favorite show to do Uni work 
. Although I’m not really watching anything on TV, I actually just enjoy a little bit of background noise.
Ok, that’s enough jabbering about TV, now I will jabber on about Wikipedia. Wikipedia is an emerging knowledge space. Wikipedia is an open, collaborative space, where people can create, collaborate, and produce information and knowledge within a web 2.0 format. Wikipedia is the most successful online encyclopedia. However Wikipedia is not your standard traditional encyclopedia, the key difference being the ability for users to create knowledge and information. Anyone can edit and create pages on Wikipedia.
This key aspect of Wikipedia has created a entrenched criticism of Wikipedia. Its reliability and credibility is constantly criticized and it if you were to ever reference Wikipedia on a university essay it would definitely come back with an ‘F’ plastered all over it. But is Wikipedia really that bad. I personally find Wikipedia very useful. As I study law, I am given cases to read every week. Before I read the case I give a quick search on Wiki, most of the time someone has written about the case, there is a brief outline of the facts and what the outcome was. It isn’t in-depth, however I can understand it and it gives me the basic understanding of the topic which I then use as I research more thoroughly.
So is the information on Wikipedia wrong or right and who knows. Most of the time I find Wikipedia objective and factual, I do agree it shouldn’t be used in academic writing, but I think it is a useful knowledge base and that it is credible. It could be argued that it is more credible than that of an article written by an academic, Wikipedia entries go through the most rigorous editing, we edit them. Imagine if you gave an essay on World War II to everybody with access to the internet to check before you handed it in. It would receive the most intense editing and criticism this is what happens on Wikipedia. Entries are edited and changed constantly. The truth is being constantly questioned; this idea demonstrates how credible Wikipedia can be.
Although I do acknowledge that this is an optimistic and somewhat utopian ideal of Wikipedia and in many cases the content of an article can be completely incorrect and fabricated. This is the problem with Wikipedia it has such potential to be an infinite source of objective knowledge but this is impossible with humans as our minds are all completely different and our thoughts and opinions will always be slightly different from others. What is the truth to some isn’t to others.
I like how Wikipedia as a form of new media as brought up philosophical questions about what is the truth, of subjectivity of objectivity, of the meaning of knowledge.
Citizen Journalism
I thought this YouTube video was a great way to start a blog about Citizen Journalism, so check it out!
Now lets talk Citizen Journalism!
Citizen Journalism allows anyone with access a computer and the internet to be a journalist. Citizen Journalism is like a paddock without a fence where cows can walk right in from anywhere they please, and shit wherever they like. I know a little extreme simile but hey this is a blog right, lets go crazy! And I think you can get the idea, it’s open, it accessible, people can jump on the net and write about their son’s soccer game or how they feel about the recent swine flu outbreak. Personally I think it’s aporkalyptic!
Ok maybe it’s time to get a little more serious this is a blog for university! so what really is Citizen Journalism, Citizen Journalism is effectively the idea that users can use the web to report on news and current affairs. Everyday people can use the internet to contribute themselves to the world around them. This has come about as a result of web 2.0. Web 2.0 is the name given to what I see as the interactive internet. Where people can collaborate, contribute and network within online communities.
Citizen Journalism can best be looked at through it’s examples ohmynews is a South Koren website established in 2000 and it’s slogan is ‘ever citizen is a reporter’ another example is the website youth noise. Youth Noise is a website for young citizen journalists it provides young people with the ability to contribute to online debates, forums and blogs and is a prime example of citizen journalism.
Alright so there’s the basic gist of what CJ is, now what impact is Citizen Journalism having on society? It is impossible to discuss every impact that citizen journalism has on society, however one impact of particular interest to me and which is discussed by Terry Flew in his book New Media: An Introduction, is the idea that Citizen Journalism allows for new ideas and opinions to be expressed within state-controlled media countries. Flew uses the example of Indonesia, Flew suggests that there is a relationship between the rise of the internet and the gradual democratization of Indonesian politics and society. Flew suggests that the internet namely Citizen Journalism has been embraced as a method by political activists and reformers, becoming a vital factor of commentary on elections and political affairs within Indonesia since the first free elections in 1999. This has allowed for democracy to develop within Indonesian society. The ability to post news and information onto the web which would otherwise not make it onto news within such countries allows for a sense of egalitarianism to develop. Although this is a brief outline of only one specific impact Citizen Journalism has on societies, it does provide a basic idea that Citizen Journalism is in a sense a BIG DEAL, it is a social trend which is question the role of traditional journalism, it is effecting societies and invoking debate.
Citizen Journalism breaks down the gates of media control and allows anyone to be a journalist and express their opinions whether this is a good thing or not is a question I’m sure philosophers, academics and citizen journalists themselves will discuss for many years to come.
Produsage
The term ‘Produsage’ was coined by Axel Bruns (2008). Produsage refers to the idea that with new technological trends like web 2.0 the role of the consumer has long disappeared and the distinctions between users and producers have merged into a comparative irrelevance. Users are becoming producers of a shared knowledge base accessible to anyone online. This has become known as produsage.
Now I know what you are thinking this is another one of those terms thrown around at universities to explain new ideas and theories and you are naturally skeptical. However there is no need. Produsage is a legitimate term and exists within a wider context of new concepts for explaining the social technological and economic environment of user-led content creation (Bruns 2008).
Web 2.0 is a prime example of this new concept we call produsage. Web 2.0 is the ‘read-write’ web, it’s most visible proponents are Blogs, Wikipedia and YouTube. Web 2.0 blurs traditional notions of consumption (Bruns 2008). The simple fact that I can write my own blog on this particular topic is an example of produsage in action. I consume knowledge about produsage and then transfer it onto a networked platform for more people to consume. I am no longer simply consuming this knowledge but reproducing it in my own form. The strength of this emerging concept was confirmed in 2006 when Time Magazine made ‘YOU’ that is, all of us participating in collaborative content environments, it’s ‘Person of the Year’. This was confirmed again in the same year when Advertising Age also named the consumer as ‘Advertising Agency of the Year’. This shows the recognition of the impact of user-led collaborative content creation and reinforces the role produsage is playing within our society.
There are four key principles of produsage suggested by Bruns (2008), firstly Open Participation, Communal evaluation, this involves the idea that more people are able to participate, evaluate, and add to contributions of there predecessors. Secondly is Fluid Heterarchy, Ad Hoc Meritocracy, produsage departs from traditional, hierarchical organizational models and allows for the skills and abilities of all participants to have an equal ability to make a worthy contribution. Thirdly, is the principle of Unfinished Artifacts, this is the idea that produsage must remain continually unfinished. Produsage does not work towards the completion of products rather it is aimed at the gradual improvement of existing shared content. The final key principle of Produsage is common property, that being; produsers are contributing to a shared common purpose. These four key principles outline the basis behind produsage. The question then is what impact does produsage have?
Bruns (2008) argues that produsage brings about the idea of cultural convergence, which will as Bruns argues bring about a collapse of established media powers, which are unable to keep up with the emerging forms of content creation.
References
Bruns, A. 2008. Blogs, Wikidepia, Secound Life and Beyon. From Production to Produsage. New York, Peter Lane Publishing, Inc.
