RE: <nettime> creators & users

[Curt Hagenlocher <curth@motek.com>]

> We customarily use dichotomous pairs - developer/user,
> artists/audience or author/reader - to describe cultural 
> exchanges. We do not really have any good concepts that
> would frame their relationship other than as the above
> mentioned one way street. The awful new economy term of
> the 'prosumer' has, thank good, never caught on. 

This word has acquired two separate meanings, of which "the other one" has
caught on.

It was first coined by Toffler in The Third Wave as a blend of producer
and consumer, and this is clearly the sense in which you're referring to
it.

The second, more common usage is as a blend of professional and consumer,
and is used to describe products of higher quality than a consumer
product, but not quite up to the standards of a professional user.  It's
also used to refer to the users of these products.  This usage is
especially common for video equipment and digital cameras.

The contrast between the two meanings of the word is quite nice,
actually...

--
Curt Hagenlocher
curth@motek.com



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