Chapter 5- Prosumers
Prosumers seem like the next logical step from customer customization such as NikeID products, etc. What better way to guarantee the success of a product than to let customer design it themselves. This chapter compares “hacking” and “creating.” Two sides of the same coin. Whatever you call it, it’s going to happen. The key is to turn it into a positive (creating) and capitalize on it. (ie, Lego)
Secondlife:
At first I thought it was ridiculous. Now, after reading and learning, I’m tempted to try it out. Stories like that of “Anshe Chung” (who has made a lot of money in secondlife) make me think, why am I not getting in before this thing takes off and making money? On the other side, my “first life” takes up a lot of my time. The thing about these communities is that it’s kind of like a black hole for time. But maybe that’s what some people are looking for, an escape from their first life. Aside from interesting income tax conundrums, it will be fascinating to see where second life ends up. (That is, where the “prosumers” take it)
YouTube:
YouTube offers a great video library. It’s been going on for a few years, but I always thought that people who had videos on their MySpace and Facebook pages were ridiculous. It was too overwhelming. But I recently discovered the greatness of YouTube when I wanted to share a certain segment of the “Gingervitis” South Park Episode with my sister. While this mass compilation of videos is an awesome tool, there are many concerns. For example, the UF “Don’t taser me, bro” incident. While the kid clearly knew what he was doing, the UF police looked like morons. I don’t have a problem with that, but if you are UF, it gives a whole new meaning to negative press. And on an individual level, my friend always jokes that he can never run for office because there are too many YouTube videos of him singing bad karaoke. While funny, it is also true.
3 comments:
Youtbe has changed how the news is done. Now anyone can take out a cell phone and video an incident and within minutes the world knows about it. This will espescially effect political campaigns as any idiotic thing said or done can be seen by everybody.
you're right. It was somewhat smart of politicians (or whoever made the decision) to incorporate youtube into debates so that they could guarantee the stuff they wanted would get on youtube also.
I didn't even think about the Nike shoes! I want those so bad! I went on and designed my own pair. It was very user friendly. Hopefully more businesses will use these tools to make online customization easier.
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