Week Five: DIY Culture

Online cultures and communities are developing everywhere, but few have taken off in popularity like DIY (Do-it-yourself) culture.  Produsers who participate in these communities by creating anything from jewelery to clothing, and then selling it in these online marketplaces have arguably turned it “into an industry in its own right” (Bruns, 2008).  That is exactly what this is, an industry where produsers take advantage of communities online, and no longer have a need for physical stores to sell their products to consumers.  One of the most famous examples of these marketplaces is the website Etsy (www.etsy.com).  Anyone can join the community by signing up and then putting their products up for sale.  Not only that but users can then use their accounts to buy other peoples products, and build relationships with them.  This is effetively an example of the users becoming produsers.

This brings up a whole plethora of issues.  What happens to popular brands and actual stores with the increase of people simply making their own products and selling them themselves?  Will stores become obsolete? Will businesses and brands migrate to online stores to take advantage of the their popularity?  As Axel Bruns states on his blog, this is an example of a growing opposition to major brands, and everyone wanting to move towards having their own brand.  This is a big issue due to the fact that it can only mean a decline in sales for major brands and businesses, unless they are willing to adapt to a growing online DIY culture.  It seems as though only flexible brands will prevail.

For example, indie film makers are taking advantage of the whole DIY phenomenon by offering their films for sale on DVD or download through websites run by themselves.  This effectively “cuts out the middle man” and allows them to take in 100% of the profit.  By offering their films for sale online through their own websites, they don’t need to bother with making deals with stores to sell their products.  As stated before, this becomes a problem for major stores because it makes them obsolete.  On the flipside though, this is a very positive thing for filmmakers.  It opens up opportunities that may not have been possible otherwise.  Some low budget film makers may not have the opporunity to sell their films through stores in the first place due to factors like their films aren’t in high demand, or may be targeted at niche markets.  Though with the ability to sell and market them themselves, there is no need to worry about that.  It all depends on how dedicated the filmmakers are to promoting and marketing their films, and ultimately, that decides how successful they will be.

There is no end in sight to the growth of  DIY cultures due to the fact that is an appealing, easy, and cheap way for people to market their products.

References:

Bruns, A. 2007. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage.  New York: Peter Lang

Bruns, A. 2008. From Prosumption to DIY Culture, Snurblog.info. http://snurblog.info/node/973 (accessed May 26th, 2009)

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