One Small Step Toward Prosumer Representation
January 23 2009 / by Alvis Brigis
Category: The Web Year: 2009 Rating: 2
MySpace and the Wall Street Journal are running a promotion that will send one MySpace user to the influential World Economic Forum Davos Conference as a "citizen journalist". Though the contest may seem like a novelty at this point in web history, it does mark one small step toward more official respresentation for the prosumer and web networks of the near-future.
Selected by an all-star panel of judges based on their compelling and heartfelt video submissions, the 5 finalists are all women with clear and well-stated messages for our world leaders. Each has garnered a community feedback score of between 72% and 88%, which means that they pass the public likability test. I am particularly struck by how well-rounded and inspiring the candidates come across.
Expecting a steady increase in prosumer behavior, proliferation of web-based economic clans and the growth of value generated by such, I imagine that contests such as this one will expand in coming years as participants in different social nodes gradually begin to demand more rights.
Already, the Chris DeWolfes (MySpace), Mark Zuckerbergs (Facebook), and Philip Rosedales (Second Life) of the world are regularly invited to speak at big events about the sizable online nations they lead. But how long will it take before web-based prosumers unionize and demand representation to the external world?
As more value is generated through collaborative online structures, the persons with the most at risk will invariably seek to protect or grow their revenue streams. They will then naturally 1) demand representation through their existing network, 2) leave their network to participate in a more open or suitable network, or 3) work around their social network by forming their own unions or guilds that may operate across different platforms.
As social networking and prosumerism becomes the norm, each network will need to deal with steady user pressure to steadily better its offerings. The ones that fail to deliver on this will face either exodus or mutiny, possibly resulting in the death of their business. At the same time, there will also surely arise networks that place an emphasis on democratic, or share-based behavior, in a manner that fits well with their business model (I am fairly certain the trailblazer will not be a NewsCorp run outfit).
This will not happen overnight, esepcially now that most social media companies are scrambling to hunker down and monetize, but it will happen over the next few years.
Furthermore, the networks that do figure out how to democraztize effectively (even if it's just for segments of their network) will enjoy the advantage of outsourcing a % of their operations, management and/or value-generating behavior to their constituents, which may reduce their budgets or permit low-cost scaling. Perhaps the next Google will arise from such a structure?
I think it likely that such a prosumer-managed powerhouses will be among the first to elect representatives to negotiate their positions with the outside world, initially serving as a new form of union or local government then transitioning into something both more granular and massive.
On the flipside of the coin, as our existing institutions (govt, healtcare, education, media, etc) are forced online, they will bring along their traditional operating behaviors and structures. As these are reconciled with software they may bring along democratic values and protocols that can then be adapted to the arising systems most likely to implement and further develop them.
Interested in the future of politics? Join a social network and try to build some value now. That's probably what most of our future leaders are doing right now, though to many it may look like wasting time.
