I haven't yet had a chance to note my latest two book chapters on produsage here - both in German, and following on from conferences in Germany which I spoke at in 2008 and 2009:
The reader Prosumer Revisited, from the Prosumer Revisited conference which I attended earlier this year, contains my chapter "Vom Prosumenten zum Produtzer", which argues that the 'prosumer' is no longer a useful term to describe the changes in participation and content creation which are occurring today, and provides a concise overview of produsage, or Produtzung, as an alternative. Probably a little more clearly than I did in my conference presentation itself!
The book, edited by the conference chairs Birgit Blättel-Mink and Kai-Uwe Hellmann, is now available from the German Amazon site, or from the publisher, VS-Verlag.
And the book Soziale Netze in der digitalen Welt, edited by Christoph Bieber, Martin Eifert, Thomas Groß, and Jörn Lamla, follows on from a conference in Gießen at which I presented in 2008, but my contribution, "Produtzung: Von medialer zu politischer Partizipation", takes a considerably longer view of potential developments in political participation than the more strongly citizen journalism-focussed paper at the conference itself; it explores similar ideas to my 2008 journal article for Information Polity, in fact.
While the book covers considerably more ground than 'only' politics, as its title - social networks in the digital world - implies, I think it's the four chapters on social media and politics which will attract particular interest in Germany: after all, the country is experiencing a time of considerable political upheaval, with a new centre-right coalition government, a newly fractured left whose current state recalls the dark days of the bitter SPD/USPD split in the early Weimar Republic, and the emergence of new single-issue groups such as the German Pirate Party. Social media will have a key role to play in attracting new members to these parties (or enticing old ones back to active membership) and in promoting their various causes. My chapter should make for a useful companion piece to my recent interview for Polar Magazin.
