PRODUCE... I Mean Produsage

What the crap is Produsage? If that was your first thought welcome to my world. If you also thought like me you would’ve assumed that it was something to do with producing things, congrats you’re practically correct!

During the industrial revolution we relied on mass produced goods distributed from a central company. In modern times we can create our own goods and content, with the assistance of the internet.

The idea put forth by Axel Bruns is that we aren’t just passive consumers anymore. When you actively participate in a community by contributing back to it you are becoming a producer. The best example of this would have to be YouTube. By uploading content you’ve made or filmed so that others can watch or consume it, you are becoming a producer. Still not getting it? Well, ever heard of Wikipedia (I am guessing if you’re a student yes, yes you have heard of Wikipedia)? Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia which can be edited by those who know more information about a particular topic.

However, can produsage also be considered plagiarism?
Consider this 

This video by Walk Off The Earth is fantastic, but it isn’t their song, it is a cover of Gotyes song ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’. Usually if there is something so blatantly in breach of copyright YouTube will take it down. They are even making money off the song by directing people to purchase if off iTunes. In the description they don’t mention it is a cover until they direct you to buy their copy and after a massive list of tour dates (go check it out, that list is HUGE).  However, they do thank Kimbra and Gotye for writing the song, but does that excuse the breach? I mean if Men at Work can be sued because their song resembled a famous Australian Children song (Kookaburra Laugh or whatever it’s called), surely they can be in breach of copyright. Having said that I really hope they don’t because I actually really like this cover.

As put forth by Axel Bruns there are four key principles of produsage:

• Open Participation/ Communal Evaluation
• Fluid Heterarchy/ Ad Hoc Meritocracy
• Unfinished Artefacts/ Continuing process
• Common Property/ Indivual Rewards.

(http://produsage.org/)

Wikileaks

I had always thought that governments were supposed to work for the people they represent... how wrong was I?! People are supposed to be able to trust their governments but it makes it so hard to trust them when they constantly deceive the very people that elected them to power. It is expected that there is a certain level of government transparency. While it is somewhat expected that governments don’t tell their people everything they loose more than trust by hiding information in shadows rather than by releasing the news to the public. It will cause more public backlash simply because they try hiding the information and expect no one will realise what they are doing.  It is people like Julian Assange and the other workers of Wikileaks that reveal just how deceptive our governments are. However, there is a fine line between the government making information available to citizens and maintaining national security. As stated by Bertot social media “offers a contrasting view to balance the media coverage”. It does so by combining collaboration, participation, empowerment and time. Social media gives user a platform to voice their opinions (Bertot, Jaeger and Grimes 2010). Wikileaks is a prime example of how technologies can reveal corruption.

Wikileaks exposes unethical behaviour in governments and corporations, they do so by publishing and commenting on leaked documents on their web page. Its the newest form of investigative reporting. What Julian Assange and the rest of the Wikileaks team can be compared to the works of I.F Stone (Izzy Stone)Throughout Izzys early career he was criticised and blacklisted, Izzy filed, cross referenced and contextualised what governments say and published his own Weekly news, called ‘IF Stone’s Weekly.  Very similar to what Wikileaks does now, except Wikileaks has the assistance of computers and the internet to assist them (and a wider audience due to the ease of accessibility of the internet).

While war mongering countries like America have the most to lose with Wikileaks around they will stop at nothing to put Julian Assange behind bars. Julian Assange stands as an honest man, revealing classified information to the people, who have the right to know what is happening with the tax payers money. While not every country has freedom of speech Julian Assange and Wikileaks go to extensive lengths to make sure their facts are checked and not to defame anyone.  Currently Julian Assange is in the middle of a court case regarding extradition to Sweden.

Update: Assange lost the court case, but hope remains he can still appeal the decision to the European Court of Human Rights.

References:

Bertot, J. C., Jaeger, P. T. and Grimes, J. M. Using ICTs to create a culture of transparency: E-government and social media as openness and anti-corruption tools for societies Government Information Quarterly 27 (2010)

http://alanknight.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/wikileaks-and-investigative-journalism/#more-628

eEXTREMIST

Extremist can be define as “A person who holds extreme or fanatical political or religious views, esp. one who resorts to or advocates extreme action” (oxford dictionary). When viewed by the common man, their views can be considered as immoral and misinformed, they don’t generally fit in with the average people of society and prefer the surroundings of likeminded individuals. eExtremists can easily find like minded people with the internet as it is so much easier to connect with people. I can’t fathom why people would want to hate people simply based on things such as ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or skin colour. The internet has just made it easier for these groups to connect, its acted as a gateway for them to share their ideas on a global scale, as well as recruit new members. Any information posted on the internet is accessible 24 hours a day from anywhere on the planet as long as they have a connection, and everyone has the ability to broadcast their ideas to the world.

Extremist groups were among the very early users of electronic communication (Gerstenfeld, 2003). Tom Metzger is the leader of the White Aryan Resistance. In 1985 he created a computer bulletin board which quickly gathered a loyal following. However, there are organisations that monitor extremist activities, one such organisation is The Intelligence Project. While it is almost impossible to monitor absolutely everything on the internet they do publish a magazine that informs the public and law enforcement authorities on the current activities they are investigating.

The Southern Poverty Law Center counted 926 active hate groups in the United States in 2008. One of these sites was Aryan Nations. (http://www.aryan-nations.org/). Aryan nations declare they are “a worldwide Pan-Aryan crusade dedicated to the preservation and advancement of our Race.” However, I can’t help but to compare them with the same ideals that Hitler had. The majority of the info on the website is just purely hateful and disturbing. As mentioned above the internet can be accessed by anyone, which means anyone can visit that site, even children.

One of the sites in the reading was the Australian First Part, which I thought nothing of to begin, I had thought it was going to be yelling things at the public to gain them onside. When I delved into some of their supported policies I found that they wanted to reduce immigration and abolish multiculturalism. . Graeme Campbell, their founder, claims that "Australia must remain predominantly white.” For a political party they do hold a lot of extreme views, I find it hard to believe they have a solid following with views like these. While they aren’t as forward like Aryan Nations the message is clear that they are intolerant and slightly racist.

References

Poisoning the Web: Hatred Online. (1999). Vol. 61 Issue 5http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.swin.edu.au/ehost/pdf?vid=3&hid=7&sid=81a1f4e3-f621-4727-a1eb-e60e91636e1c%40sessionmgr7

Gerstenfeld, Phyllis B.; Grant, Diana R.; Chau-Pu Chiang (2003) Hate Online: A Content Analysis of Extremist Internet Sites. Analyses of Social Issues & Public Policy. Vol. 3 Issue 1, p29-44

http://ausfirst.alphalink.com.au/

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/history.jsp

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/extremist?region=us