Prosumerdriven

Prosumerdriven refers to processes, platforms, and strategies in which consumers who also contribute value—prosumers—play a central role in shaping products, services, and policies. In a prosumerdriven model, user input is not only consumption but also design, creation, or validation, often through crowdsourcing, co-design, and open collaboration.

Origin and context: The term builds on the idea of the prosumer coined by Alvin Toffler in the 1980s and has gained prominence with digital platforms that enable widespread participation, such as social networks, open-source communities, and maker cultures.

Key mechanisms include user-generated content, feedback loops, crowdsourcing ideas or components, participatory design, open innovation, and modular platforms that allow users to customize or contribute features.

Applications span software, hardware and product development, media and entertainment, energy systems (prosumer households producing and selling power), urban planning, and gaming. Examples include open-source software projects, user-driven product customization, and community labs.

Benefits and challenges: Benefits include faster innovation, higher alignment with user needs, increased engagement, and new business models. Challenges encompass governance and IP issues, quality control, privacy, coordination costs, and potential conflicts between individual and platform incentives.

Related concepts: prosumer, crowdsourcing, co-creation, user-centered design, open innovation.