Today, produsers “understand, accept, and embrace the principles of produsage”, and reconceptualise and design products. They focus on not the profit of sales from products, but approaching those artefacts and engage in produsage by contributing their ideas of their own to the wider community. The vast majority of manufacturers still has the concept that product development and service development are to be done by manufacturers only, however, produsers are participating in the product development from intangible artefacts, that is to “produce the artefacts of produsage” (Bruns 2008, 391).
“The rise of interactive media does provide us with the beginnings of new metaphors for cooperation, new faith in the power of networked activity and new evidence of our ability to participate actively in the authorship of our collective destiny.”
The Royal Children’s Hospital’s Health Information Services provide a range of services for The Royal Children’s Hospital including record retrieval, clinical coding, and system administration. They provide advice and guidance to staff and the wider community on all aspects of health information management. This year, 2009, the health Information Services promotes a Medical Record Form Design for staff to design a medical record form for their area. This staffs are not manufacturers who have been responsible for designing and remodelling these medical record forms. This produsage-based design of medical record forms is a great example of turning artefacts to products.
Each form must comply with the Australian Standard on Hospital Medical Records (AS2828) by referring to the RCH policy 04-00-1-013 Medical Records – Design of Forms. Though staffs/produsers are to design under guidelines and have to ensure the consistency of the format with other hospital forms in the medical record, they are able to identify the effective and significant information needed in forms and design into “products of physical goods”, to modify old forms or create new ones to enhance the health community within their area. It is a great example of what Bruns (2008, 389) discusses, “produsage moves beyond the producer/consumer distinction, and learn to share their own innovations with the wider community.”
Produsers in the health community, works more effectively on the creation, sharing, and development of new information and knowledge resources than conventional producers are able to, and for such producers, their business is rapidly converting “from one based on content production to one which provides services to aid the community in its produsage efforts” (Bruns 2008, 391).
Consumers are becoming significant roles for produsage-based approach in this emerging new environment (Bruns 2008, 395). By using the produsage principles, produsers are able to develop a collection of information and knowledge sufficient to allow for the industrial production of physical goods. As it spreads further throughout in the health community, produsage will undoubtedly affect the structures of the setting of contribution, experts, non-experts are able to participate in develop and share unlimitedly, to maintain, improve and innovate in this open platform.
Bruns, A. 2008. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond From Production to Produsage. The key characteristics of produsage, P. Lang, 387-403. New York (accessed 21 May 2009).
