Beyond Difference: Reconfiguring Education for the User-Led Age

c r e a t i v e n d u s t r i e si

creativeindustries.qut.com

Beyond Difference:Reconfiguring Education for the User-Led Age

Dr Axel BrunsMedia & Communication

Creative Industries FacultyQueensland University of Technology

Brisbane, [email protected] – http://snurb.info/



Key Questions

‒ How does education:

• prepare graduates to become expert users of the information available from user-led content creation environments?

• prepare graduates to be expert participants in user-led content creation environments?



Produsage

• open source software development

• online publishing∘ blogs∘ open news – e.g. Slashdot,

Indymedia, OhmyNews

• knowledge management∘ wikis – e.g. Wikipedia∘ social bookmarking – e.g.

del.icio.us, digg∘ geotagging – e.g.

Google Earth, Frappr

• multi-user gaming∘ e.g. The Sims, Everquest,

Second Life, Spore

• media sharing and creative practice∘ e.g. Flickr, ccMixter, YouTube

, Jumpcut, Current.tv

• reviews and viral marketing∘ e.g. Epinions, IgoUgo

• automatic aggregation∘ Google, Amazon, Technorati

– User-led content creation is emerging in various domains:



Produsage

‒ Beyond production:• ‘anyone can edit’ – users become producers of content• content is no longer a distinct product – it is a temporary artefact

of an ongoing process, and is continuously evolving• usage and production are increasingly, inextricably intertwined• strict distinctions between producers, distributors, and

consumers no longer apply• a new “Generation C” of content produsers?

this is produsage



Common Characteristics

‒ Shared across these environments:• Community-Based – the community as a whole, if sufficiently large and

varied, can contribute more than a closed team of producers, however qualified

• Fluid Roles – produsers participate as is appropriate to their personal skills, interests, and knowledges; this changes as the produsage project proceeds

• Unfinished Artefacts – content artefacts in produsage projects are continually under development, and therefore always unfinished; their development follows evolutionary, iterative, palimpsestic paths

• Common Property, Individual Merit – contributors permit (non-commercial) community use and adaptation of their intellectual property, and are rewarded by the status capital gained through this process



Implications

‒ Challenges to traditional paradigms:• new business models, new industry sectors• new sources of information, new repositories of knowledge• new forms, new understanding of content• new forms of collaborative work (scientific, intellectual, artistic)• new approaches to intellectual property• new measures of personal standing and success

‒ Or rediscovery of even older models:• open academic collaboration and sharing of knowledge• reputation and social status as non-monetary currency• commons-based intellectual property models



Graduates and/as Generation C?

‒ Generation C (Trendwatching.com):• Content, Creativity, Casual Collapse, Control, Celebrity – Cash

‒ Graduates need to be able to• understand this environment, and• be able to be part of it (if they so choose)

‒ Examples:• software engineers: work as open source developers• journalists: collaborate with citizen journalism produsers• knowledge workers: operate effectively in wikified environments• artists: collaborate widely but protect reputation and IP



The C4C

‒ Four crucial graduate capacities:• Creative:

engage in collaborative creative produsage work (and understand reasons for wanting to do so) – economic, social, individual

• Collaborative:evaluate when, where, and with whom to collaborate (and when not to do so), and understand potential positive and negative consequences – especially for intellectual property and personal reputation



The C4C

‒ Four crucial graduate capacities:• Critical:

evaluate quality of content and skills of collaborators, assess own capabilities, identify best sites of / venues for produsage – and be able to express and share such critique constructively

• Communicative:understand the communicative models of produsage environments, and work effectively within them – also participate successfully in communication about the shared collaborative effort: metacollaboration



Implementing the C4C

‒ The C4C framework is a mission statement:• outlines the core capacities• describes the underlying motivations for pursuing them• situates this in an overall framework of produsage

‒ How do we implement this framework in everyday learning and teaching practice?• Model produsage environments (safe sandbox)• Transition education itself from production to produsage –

learners as co-creators of education• Engage with (educational) produsage communities outside of

the academy – accommodate transient learners, partner with Wikiversity and other emerging projects?



Here’s where we are …

(Todd Richmond, in Rheingold, 2006)

… but where are we going next?

The Future?

Beyond Difference: Reconfiguring Education for the User-Led Age

Technology

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