The Illusion of the Prosumer

Mark Bell came to talk to us in Second Life about virtual economies and possible implications. He brings to attention some points which seem apparent but sound profound when they are told to you. For example, once products are made once in Second Life, then they may be endlessly reproduced and instantly (again taking time out to the equation, or at least making it less important). This again signals to the change in dimensional importance and why we view as important in various realities. 

I want to bring another issue up. I was talking with a fellow classmate (Kyle) about the scam Mark was talking about. Kyle (view his blog here) raised a good point about how the scammers actually stole more money then he realized, and that if it was that easy to do it once, then why not do it multiple times? Mr. Bell did not fully realize the potential implications of this, and as Kyle suggests, the crooks made off with more money then he thinks. Perhaps it was worth the time to figure out the scripting involved. Also, it may not be thousands of dollars in real life, but in Second Life it is a substantial amount. Why compare the two anyways? It's a lot in one reality and it could be put to uses that are important in SL but not so much in RL. So why predicate one importance over the other?

A prosumer is an illusion of agency. We must learn the machine. Just because we are aware of it doesn't make us a prosumer. We are becoming increasingly aware of our corporeal reality also, and because of that we could be said to becoming closer to prosumers here too. Our ability to produce and consumer in Web 2.0 mirrors this reality, and in doing so gives us a similar sense of agency, which is not aptly described as a prosumer. I believe this is a term devised to help give the augmented reality a positive spin. There are larger audiences and more exposure, but it is the same agency involved, just more of it.