Prosumption

I am trying to determine if blogshopping is a prosumption activity.  Traditional definition of prosumption is that the consumer assumes some of the producer's roles in making products that will be consumed by the consumer.

In blogshopping, buyers become sellers of the kind of items they are interested in buying.  The theme is there, but is it the same as what we understand about prosumption? Or is it a type/version of prosumption?
The difference is that in blogshopping the buyer may not co-create the products (the more advanced ones do  make and sell, so at least at the extreme end, they BECOME prosumers?), but they just sell them.  Thus, at this point, they are more like resellers.  At a more advanced stage where the blogshop owner begins to have creative and productive capabilities (like making their own designs and clothes), they MIGHT BE prosumers since they are now creating and consuming in a same product category.

Also, the buying and the selling is not necessarily on the same item.  They undertake both roles in the general product category, which differs from the usual example of prosumers being the people who pump their own gas or make their own salad at McDonald's.

In blogshopping, the buyers become sellers.  But do they become prosumers in the sense of the word?  Or does the concept of prosumption include the notion of buyers becoming producers?

The article below makes note of an observation that I see with blogshop owners in that they (referred to here as prosumers) are selling themselves.  In blogshopping, this is what happens when a blogshop owner who designs her own fashion pieces infuses her ideas, and personalities and art into her work.  Thus ultimately, blogshops are probably linked to the idea of 'self-displaying' and 'self-selling'.

A post from the blog: http://kulturmonster.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/a-very-quick-word-on-prosumption/ 

PROSUMPTION

I think it is interesting to look at web 2.0 applications under the notion of “prosumption”. Prosumption is an economic model, “where capitalist subjects produce what they consume, turning consumption in to a form of production“ (Boellstorff 2008). This idea is elaborated in Toffler’s book “The Third Wave” (which I have yet to get) (Toffler 1980). In his very, very recommendable book “Coming of Age in Second Life”, Tom Boellstorff puts the “prosumer” (In “Second Life”) in a bigger framework of “creationist capitalism”. Production and consumption conflate – to fully participate in second life’s culture you have to create something.“In creationist capitalism it is persons who create, not God” (or the companies). The theme of the mood in which such ideas subside is nicely captured by Purdy’s article “The God of the Digerati”, available here (Purdy 1998).

The model of prosumption is not only applicable to “Second Life”, we can easily see how it fits networks like YouTube (or this blog post). But what does it mean that consumption becomes a form of production?
First and foremost it sounds like a manager’s dream. Not the company has to create the products the user consumes, users create their own products. The only task that is left, is to provide the infrastructure (Sounds great, but apparently YouTube still doesn’t make any profit).

Secondly, this might denote bigger cultural developments and since it is social interaction which is happening in these networks, it sets the frame for these interactions. Maybe this is the more interesting question. What does it mean that people participate in a culture where consumption means production, and what is it that they are producing? Posing this question presses us inevitably in a marxist tradition. The first and obvious answer is that people are selling themselves, their personality (in the widest sense) to the potential audience. They create a certain personality for display (might as well be their everyday character), and in the act of creation they are consuming this very portary. Now, I won’t try to elaborate further on this topic since it will probably only lead me to wild fantasizing, but I think the question alone is worth entertaining.