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Prosumer is a portmanteau formed by contracting either the word professional or less often, producer with the word consumer. For example, a prosumer grade digital camera is a "cross" between consumer grade and professional grade.

The term has also taken on multiple meanings in business and economics: the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer (producer–consumer) as having greater independence from the mainstream economy. These differing meanings often describe the same people; consumers unusually interested in the products. It can also be used to differentiate the traditional passive consumer with an active consumer role more involved in the process, such as activity in the design or customization of the end product.

Definition variations[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

General meanings[link]

• The term was coined by futurologist Alvin Toffler in 1980 and that meaning is not commonly used today. Loosely, Toffler's "proactive consumer" prosumers were common consumers who were predicted to each become active to help personally improve or design the goods and services of the marketplace, transforming it and their roles as consumers. Toffler is discussed in depth below.
• By far the most common usage of the term describes the consumers, enthusiasts who buy products (almost always technical) that fall between professional and consumer grade standards in quality, complexity, or functionality. Prosumer also commonly refers to those products. Semiprofessional. "Prosumer" is a well-accepted category for camcorders, digital cameras, VCRs, "and other video playthings."^[1] These advanced product features and higher prosumer expectations lend themselves to increased customizing in Toffler's product-improvement sense.^[2]
• The "producing consumer" prosumer creates goods for their own use and also possibly to sell. Uncommon usage.
• "Professional consumers" prosumers are excellent, better informed consumers who are buying top-grade or best-value products, or think they are. This group also includes a broader target for marketers and advertisers. According to Prosumer-Reports.com this attractive hip, young group "are influencing markets all over the globe. Empowered by new technologies and improved access to information, Prosumers are highly knowledgeable and demanding consumers."^[3] Uncommon or sarcastic usage; "Americans are prosumers." "I'm a professional “prosumer” and shopaholic."^[4]

Producer and consumer[link]

Marshall McLuhan and Barrington Nevitt suggested in their 1972 book Take Today, (p. 4) that with electric technology, the consumer would become a producer. In the 1980 book, The Third Wave, futurologist Alvin Toffler coined the term "prosumer" when he predicted that the role of producers and consumers would begin to blur and merge (even though he described it in his book Future Shock from 1970). Toffler envisioned a highly saturated marketplace as mass production of standardized products began to satisfy basic consumer demands. To continue growing profit, businesses would initiate a process of mass customization, that is the mass production of highly customized products.

However, to reach a high degree of customization, consumers would have to take part in the production process especially in specifying design requirements. In a sense, this is merely an extension or broadening of the kind of relationship that many affluent clients have had with professionals like architects for many decades.

Toffler has extended these and many other ideas well into the 21st-century. Along with recently published works such as Revolutionary Wealth (2006), we can recognize and assess both the concept and fact of the prosumer as it is seen and felt on a worldwide scale. That these concepts are having global impact and reach, however, can be measured in part by noting in particular, Toffler's popularity in China. Discussing some of these issues with Newt Gingrich on C-Span's After Words program in June 2006, Toffler mentioned that The Third Wave is the second ranked bestseller of all time in China, just behind a work by Mao Zedong.^[5]

Don Tapscott reintroduced the concept in his 1995 book The Digital Economy.

Despite several decades of usage, the term only recently began to receive full theoretical elaboration. George Ritzer and Nathan Jurgenson, in a widely cited article, claim that prosumption has become a salient characteristic of Web 2.0. Prosumers create value for companies without receiving wages.

Mass customization has not taken place in most areas of the economy. Mass customization has ruled the food & beverage industry for years. Look at how many choices we are faced with in the grocery stores and supermarkets. Brand extension and dilution are ways companies have sold more under various names, giving us thousands of choices. Most consumption continues to be passive as critics of television, recorded music, and fast food would argue. Indeed, people are generally uninterested in going to the effort of customizing the myriad products that comprise modern consumer culture. In The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, Barry Schwartz argues that diminishing returns from a confusing abundance of consumer choice is producing stress and dissatisfaction.³ Still, one key area of high-customization is taking place: highly involved hobbyists.

Professional consumer[link]

With customization focused on leisure pursuits, Toffler's initial combination has been largely supplanted by a second pair of blurring roles: that of the professional and consumer. In particular, hobbyists have become ever-more demanding in the pursuits of their hobbies, often rising above the level of dilettante (an amateur, someone who dabbles in a field out of casual interest rather than as a profession or serious interest) to the point of commanding skills equal to that of professionals. Key examples of such hobbies are:

• home improvement as illustrated by the rise of hardware stores such as Home Depot
• cooking as illustrated by creation of entirely new cable television channels entirely dedicated to the culinary arts such as The Food Channel or Food Network
• photography as illustrated by still cameras and camcorders that, often, are on a par with equipment used by professionals

This professional slant of the prosumer term is most common in photography which is a field that highlights prosumer trends. Access to professional-level equipment and skills is made possible by combination of factors such as:

• high disposable incomes by some sectors of the population
• increased leisure time, again, for some sectors of the population
• continuously falling prices of ever more advanced products (especially electronics)
• media geared towards amateurs and hobbyists:
  • beginning in the 1980s with the advent of desktop publishing, a growing profusion of magazines to satisfy specialized interests
  • beginning in the mid-1990s with the advent of the Internet, an even wider range of websites with online forums to pool experience
• Pertaining to electronics; are considered to be "on the fence" as a product of lower quality than a professional product, and higher quality (sometimes in the form of bells and whistles) than a consumer product. Some examples include:
  • Digital camcorders
  • Still cameras
  • HDTVs

Non-corporate producer and consumer[link]

Yet a third meaning or usage of prosumer is springing up, especially among some activist groups. That is, the producer and consumer roles are being combined so as to exclude (or at least diminish) the role of the corporate producer; thus, rather than generating higher corporate profits from value-added products, producers would, at best, be reduced to supplying lower-profit commodity inputs. Indeed, the more consumer-oriented prosumer spin is irrelevant to many people with diminished disposable income caused by various economic trends such as globalization, automation, and wealth concentration. Identifiable trends and movements outside of the mainstream economy that have adopted prosumer terminology and techniques include:

• a Do It Yourself (DIY) approach as a means of economic self-sufficiency or simply as a way to survive on diminished income
• the voluntary simplicity movement that seeks personal, social, and environmental goals through prosumer activities such as:
  • growing one's own food
  • repairing clothing and appliances rather than buying new items
  • playing musical instruments rather than listening to recorded music
• use of new media-creation and distribution technologies to foster independent media (see Indymedia); many involved in independent media reject mass culture generated by concentrated corporate media
• self-sufficient barter networks, notably in developing nations, such as Argentina's RGT have adopted the term prosumer⁴

These blurrings of the roles of consumer and producer have their predecessor in the cooperative self-help movements that sprang up during various economic crises e.g. the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Influence on a company's R & D budget[link]

A fourth view of the Prosumer is as one who can influence the R & D spending of a company in ways which directly benefit them. For example, say you’re a manufacturer of widgets. One of your customers changes their requirements and asks that all their widgets sing. This customer is important enough that losing them would seriously hurt your bottom line. Based on their request you direct a portion of your R & D budget to solve their specific problem. While the customer didn’t directly make the changes they did influence your company with their design requirements. This arrangement has positive effects for both parties:

For the customer:

• Immediate access to the new technology.
• The technology meets their specific requirements.

For the company:

• Strengthened relationship with the customer.
• Demonstrates a willingness to keep their customers satisfied.
• The company now has a new feature/product/service they can market to other customers.

Prosumerise[link]

In their paper entitled "When the Enterprise becomes the Prosumerise",[1] Widality discusses how the very different IT and mobility needs of the prosumer, consumer and enterprise are all now melding into a common set of requirements, driven by the rise of smartphones and downloadable applications that consumers, prosumers and enterprises are consuming in equal numbers. Solutions providers can now address the "Prosumerise" (i.e. the combined needs of the consumer, prosumer and enterprise) with common solutions. Prosumerise can also be used as a verb to describe the act of prosumerising a technology or market.

Prosumption[link]

In their book Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams coined the related term of prosumption (production/consumption) to refer to the creation of products and services by the same people who will ultimately use them. The book states criteria that increase the value of prosumers' participation such as openness, sharing, peering, globalizing. But empirically some criteria have inverse relationships.^[6] Companies and individuals are increasingly utilizing and involving the end-users to develop final products and services. In some instances, end-users are creating products on their own, without the interference or assistance of third-parties (i.e. companies, organizations, etc.). For example, Lego Mindstorms allows users to download software from Lego's website so that the users can edit and update software as they wish.

See also[link]

• Commons-based peer production

References[link]

Lui, K.M. and Chan, K.C.C. (2008) Software Development Rhythms: Harmonizing Agile Practices for Synergy, John Wiley and Sons, ISBN 978-0-470-07386-5

Ritzer, G. & Jurgenson, N., 2010. Production, Consumption, Prosumption. Journal of Consumer Culture, 10(1), pp. 13 –36. http://joc.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/10/1/13?ijkey=KKTk6xYE6Vq1c&keytype=ref&siteid=spjoc&utm_source=eNewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1J22

External links[link]

Look up prosumer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Turns of Phrase: Prosumer - business-oriented definitions of producer/professional and consumer
• February 2004 Datacloud on "Consumer" - relating Toffler/cluetrain and noting examples of corporate prosumer activity
• Review of The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less - from January, 2004 Christian Science Monitor
• Argentina's RGT - The World's Largest "Usury-Free" Barter and Trading Network - activist-oriented usage of prosumer
• DIY happy - A website devoted to helping people reach economic self-sufficiency through daily coverage of numerous DIY projects.
• Wikihowto - A wiki website aiming to make know-how free, providing consumers another option - not just to buy, but create it themselves.
• widwi = what I did with it - A website for do-it-yourselfers to share 'before' and 'after' pictures of their projects.
• Managing Prosumers - An article from ComputerWorld magazine about prosumers and their influence on wireless devices.
• Prometeus: the future of media - The rise of the Prosumer by a video.
• Prosumer Studies Working Group - A group based in the University of Maryland Sociology Department that publishes on the topic of Prosumption.

Sir Jimmy Savile OBE, KCSG
Savile in 2006
Born	James Wilson Vincent Savile (1926-10-31)31 October 1926 Leeds, England
Died	29 October 2011(2011-10-29) (aged 84) Roundhay, Leeds, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	DJ, actor, columnist, television and radio personality
Years active	1958–2011
Television	Jim'll Fix It, Top of the Pops
Religion	Roman Catholic

Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile OBE KCSG (31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011) was an English disc jockey, television presenter and media personality, best known for his BBC television show Jim'll Fix It, and for being the first and last presenter of the long-running BBC music chart show Top of the Pops. He was also known for his fundraising and support of various charities, particularly Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He was widely described as a philanthropist and was honoured for his efforts.^[1][2]

Early life[link]

Savile was born in Leeds, the youngest of seven children (Mary, Marjory, Vincent, John, Joan, Christina and James) born to Agnes Monica (née Kelly) and Vincent Joseph Marie Savile, a bookmaker's clerk and insurance agent.^[3] Savile almost died of pneumonia at the age of five months.

He was a Bevin Boy, conscripted during World War II to work as a coal miner at South Kirkby Colliery, West Yorkshire, England. He suffered serious spinal injuries in a mine explosion and spent a long period in recuperation.^[4] Having started playing records in dance halls in the early 1940s, Savile claimed to be the first ever disc jockey. According to his autobiography, he was the first person to use two turntables and a microphone, at the Grand Records Ball at the Guardbridge Hotel in 1947.^[5] Savile is acknowledged as one of the pioneers of twin turntables for continuous play of music,^[6] though his claim has been disputed. (Twin turntables had been illustrated in the BBC Handbook in 1929 and were advertised for sale in Gramophone magazine in 1931.^[7])

He became a semi-professional sportsman, competing in the 1951 Tour of Britain cycle race^[8] and working as a professional wrestler.^[9] He said:

If you look at the athletics of it, I've done over 300 professional bike races, 212 marathons and 107 pro fights. [He proudly announces that he lost all of his first 35 fights.] No wrestler wanted to go back home and say a long-haired disc jockey had put him down. So from start to finish I got a good hiding. I've broken every bone in my body. I loved it.^[10]

Savile later lived in Salford, and worked as manager of the Plaza Ballroom in Oxford Road, Manchester, in the mid-fifties. He lived in Great Clowes Street in Higher Broughton, Salford, and was often seen sitting on his front door steps. He also managed the Mecca Locarno ballroom in Leeds around the late 1950s and early 1960s.^[11] Mecca also owned the Palais, a dance hall in Ilford, Essex, and Savile did a stint as manager there between 1955 and 1956. His Monday evening records-only dance sessions (admission one shilling) were a huge favourite with local teens.^[12]

Radio[link]

Savile started his radio career working as a Radio Luxembourg DJ from 1958 to 1967. He ran the Teen and Twenty Disc Club (TTDC),^[13] membership for life, on Radio Luxembourg. For a small fee listeners received a certificate and a small bracelet with a disc on it, inscribed with the show's name. He stated on the BBC television series Inside Out that the title Teen and Twenty Disc Club had been rejected by the BBC in favour of Top of the Pops as too long; also that he introduced dancing to records, so that he was the originator of the discothèque.

In 1968 he joined BBC Radio 1, where he initially presented Savile's Travels and the discussion show Speakeasy. His best-remembered contribution to Radio 1, however, is the Sunday lunchtime show Jimmy Savile's Old Record Club, where entire top tens from years gone by were played. This was the first show to feature old charts. It began in 1973 as The Double Top Ten Show and ended in 1987 as The Triple Top Ten Show, at which point he left Radio 1 after 19 years, although he could be heard presenting The Vintage Chart Show on BBC World Service between March 1987 and October 1989, playing top tens from the years 1957 to 1987.

From March 1989 to August 1997 he was heard on various stations around the UK (mostly taking the Gold format, such as the West Midlands' Xtra AM and the original Classic Gold network in Yorkshire) where he revived his Radio 1 shows.

In 1994, satirist Chris Morris gave a fake obituary on BBC Radio 1 (as a joke), saying that Savile had collapsed and died, which allegedly drew threats of legal action from Savile and forced an apology from Morris.

On 25 December 2005, and 1 January 2007, Savile presented shows on the Real Radio network. The Christmas 2005 show counted down the festive Top 10s of 10, 20 and 30 years previously, while the New Year 2007 show (also taken by Century Radio following its acquisition by GMG) featured Savile recounting anecdotes from his past and playing associated records, mostly from the 1960s although some were from the 1970s.

Television[link]

In 1960 he presented Tyne Tees Television's music programme Young at Heart. Although the show was broadcast in black and white, Savile dyed his hair a different colour every week.^[14]

On New Year's Day, 1964, he presented the first edition of the BBC music chart television programme Top of the Pops from a television studio – a converted church (now demolished) – in Dickenson Road Rusholme, Manchester. On 30 July 2006 he also co-hosted the final edition, ending the show with the words "It's number one, it's still Top of the Pops", before being shown turning off the studio lights after the closing credits. When interviewed by the BBC on 20 November 2008 and asked about the revival of Top of The Pops for a Christmas comeback, he commented that he would welcome a "cameo role" in the programme.^[15]

During the early 1960s he co-hosted (with Pete Murray) New Musical Express Poll Winners' Concert, annually held at Empire Pool, Wembley, with acts such as The Beatles, Cliff Richard and The Shadows, Joe Brown and the Bruvvers, The Who, and many others. These were filmed and recorded and later broadcast on television. On 31 December 1969, Savile hosted the BBC/ZDF co-production Pop Go The Sixties, shown across Western Europe, celebrating the hits of the 1960s.

Savile is also remembered for a series of Public Information Films promoting road safety, notably "Clunk Click Every Trip" which was promoted the use of the car seatbelts, the clunk representing the sound of the door and the click the sound of the seatbelt fastening. This led to Savile's hosting his own Saturday night chat/variety show on BBC1 from 1973 entitled Clunk, Click, which in 1974 featured the UK heats for the Eurovision Song Contest featuring Olivia Newton-John. He also fronted a long-running series of advertisements in the early 1980s for British Rail's InterCity 125, in which he declared "This is the age of the train". After two series, Clunk, Click was replaced by Jim'll Fix It which he presented from 1975 to 1994.

He was interviewed by Dr. Anthony Clare for the radio series In the Psychiatrist's Chair, where Savile appeared to be "a man without feelings."^[16] In 1995 he was interviewed at length by Andrew Neil for the TV series Is This Your Life? (made by Open Media for Channel 4).^[17] In April 2000, he was the subject of an in depth documentary by Louis Theroux, in the When Louis Met… documentary series. "When Louis Met...Jimmy" was voted one of the top fifty documentaries of all time in a survey by Britain's Channel Four.^[18]

Savile visited the Celebrity Big Brother house on 14 and 15 January 2006. During these visits he "fixed it" for some of the housemates to have their wishes granted; for example, Pete Burns received a message from his significant other and friend while Dennis Rodman was able to trade Savile's offering for a supply of cigarettes for other housemates.

In 2007 Savile returned to television with Jim'll Fix It Strikes Again, in which he showed some of the most popular 'fixits' ever, recreating them with the same people, as well as making new dreams come true.^[19]

Personal life[link]

Savile was famous for his yodel^[20] and his catchphrases included "how's about that, then?", "now then, now then, now then", "goodness gracious", "as it 'appens" and "guys and gals". Savile was frequently spoofed for his distinctive appearance, which almost always consisted of a track suit or shell suit, along with gold jewellery. A range of licensed fancy dress costumes were released with his consent in 2009. Savile was also very well known as a heavy cigar smoker, and often smoked them for the public eye.^[21] In July 2005 he was named as one of the Radio Times "Top 40 most eccentric TV presenters of all time".

He was a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists^[22] and drove a Rolls-Royce.^[23] He was also a member of Mensa.^[24] He was chieftain of the Lochaber Highland Games for many years, and owned a house in Glen Coe. His appearance on the final edition of Top of the Pops in 2006 was pre-recorded as it clashed with the games.^[25] While still alive he arranged for a bench, in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, to be dedicated to his memory, with the words 'Jimmy Savile – but not just yet!' added as an inscription.^[26][27]

A bachelor, Savile lived with his mother (whom he referred to as "The Duchess") and kept her bedroom and wardrobe exactly as it was when she died. Every year he had her clothes dry cleaned. Savile's personal relationships were rarely the subject of media report or comment during his lifetime. He claimed in his autobiography that he had had many intimate relations with members of the opposite sex, describing his first introduction to women in detail and then adding: ".. there have been trains and, with apologies to the hit parade, boats and planes (I am a member of the 40,000 ft club) and bushes and fields, corridors, doorways, floors, chairs, slag heaps, desks and probably everything except the celebrated chandelier and ironing board."^[28] Savile claimed that the key to his success on Jim'll Fix It had been that he disliked children, although he later admitted to saying this to deflect scrutiny of his personal life. He did not own a computer, explaining that he did not want anybody to think that he was downloading child pornography.^[29]

In November 2007 Savile was robbed by a fan who made off with his glasses whilst in a Leeds hotel. According to Savile, he was walking down a corridor of the Queens Hotel at around midnight after attending a function at the hotel when he became aware of a woman walking beside him. He assumed the woman was going to hug him but she instead reached for his glasses before sprinting off down the corridor. He later said "I thought it was marvellous, it was just like old times!". Savile promised his 'assailant' a box of chocolates for giving him a "1960s thrill in 2007".^[30]

Charitable works[link]

Aside from his TV and radio work, Savile carried out a considerable amount of charity work and is estimated to have raised some £40 million for charity.^[31]

One of the causes for which he raised money was the Stoke Mandeville Hospital where he worked for many years as a volunteer porter. He raised money for the Spinal Unit, NSIC (National Spinal Injuries Centre). Savile also raised money for St Francis Ward – a ward for children and teens with spinal cord Injuries.

Savile also worked as a volunteer at Leeds General Infirmary and at Broadmoor Hospital. In 1988 he was appointed chairman of a task force set up to advise on governing Broadmoor. Savile had his own room at both Stoke Mandeville and Broadmoor.^[32]

From 1974 - 1988 he was the honorary president of Phab (Physically Handicapped in the Able Bodied community).^[33]

He also sponsored medical students at the University of Leeds to perform undergraduate research in the Leeds University Research Enterprise scholarship scheme (known as LURE), donating over £60,000 every year.^[34] In 2010 the scheme was extended with a commitment of £500,000 over the following five years.^[35] Following Savile's death in October 2011 it was confirmed that a bequest had been made to allow continued support for the LURE programme.^[36]

Savile was also well known for running marathons (many of them again for Phab, including their annual half marathon around Hyde Park). He completed the London Marathon in 2005, at the age of 79.

Honours[link]

• In 1971 he was awarded the OBE,^[37] which he always subsequently appended to his signature.
• Awarded honorary Commando Green Beret by the Royal Marines in the 1970s for being one of only three civilians to date to complete the Royal Marine Commando speed march, 30 miles across Dartmoor carrying 30 lb of kit.^[38] The other civilians were former Blue Peter presenter Gethin Jones and film maker Chris Terrill.
• In 1990 he was knighted for his services in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.^[39] The same year he was honoured with a Papal knighthood making him a Knight Commander of Saint Gregory the Great (KCSG).^[40]
• He held an honorary doctorate of law (LLD) from the University of Leeds.^[41]
• He was an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists (FRCR).^[42]
• He was a Knight of Malta.^[42]
• He was a Freeman of the Borough of Scarborough^[43]

Death[link]

Savile's coffin on display in the Queen's Hotel, Leeds, 8 November 2011

Police and paramedics were called to Savile's home at Roundhay, Leeds,^[44] at 12:10 pm on 29 October 2011, where they found his body.^[45] He was two days short of his 85th birthday. He had recently been treated in hospital for pneumonia, and police said that they were not treating his death as suspicious.^[44] His closed satin gold coffin was displayed at the Queens Hotel in Leeds^[46][47] together with the last cigar he smoked and his two This Is Your Life books.^[48] About 4,000 people visited to pay tribute.^[49] His funeral took place at Leeds Cathedral on 9 November 2011,^[50] and he was buried on 10 November at 12:30 pm at Woodlands Cemetery in the seaside town of Scarborough.^[51][52] As his will had specified, his coffin was inclined at 45 degrees to fulfil his wish to "see the sea".^[52][53] The coffin was later encased in concrete "as a security measure".^[54]

Works[link]

Books

• Jimmy Savile, As it happens, ISBN 0-214-20056-6, Barrie & Jenkins 1974 (autobiography)
• Jimmy Savile, Love is an Uphill Thing, ISBN 0-340-19925-3, Coronet 1976 (softback edition of As it Happens)
• Jimmy Savile, God'll Fix It, ISBN 0-264-66457-4, Mowbray, Oxford 1979

Recordings

• 1962, "Ahab the Arab" with Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. Decca, F11493 (single)^[55][56]

References[link]

External links[link]

• BBC News Obituary
• Jimmy Savile at the Internet Movie Database
• Jimmy Savile Biography and Radio 1 audio clips at Radio Rewind
• BBC article about the "Clunk Click Every Trip" safety belt advert
• Jimmy Savile at Find a Grave