The Dialectics of Prosumption in the Digital Age

Abstract

Recent developments in digital technology, particularly the Internet and Web 2.0, have led to a new mode of production which blurs the longstanding distinction between producers and consumers, authors and readers, speakers and audience. This entails a whole array of productive techniques which have been hitherto unthinkable or marginal. Examples abound: Wikipedia, the free online collaborative encyclopedia; NikeID, an interactive site that allows consumers to design their own Nike shoe; or the online store Threadless, offering hundreds of amateur-designed T-shirts uploaded onto the company's website in return for a fraction of the revenues.