spela

From products to tools

Trends of production and consumption illuminate changed ideology that transforms consumers into users and therefore instant production and consumption of commodified goods into dynamically developed and used tools: ‘Don't just watch -- do something!’ Tools are in contrary to goods not consumed in isolated act to produce individual environment but are created to be used in action or interaction with others. Tools are not sold on the shelf for instant consumption but are embedded into wide field of all backup information and interaction forums employing all available communication resources, and thus too big to put on the shelf so easily.
As such tools can be seen as media, communication technologies that we use and through which we are structurally coupled with our dynamically interacting environment, from which we get and further share knowledge about experiences and needs. Much of our conversation nowadays is about the technologies we employ and about interests what we want to do with certain type of technology.
Tools at the same time demand tuned up skills, so in a way they standardize, stabilize and conserve our shared field of knowledge on a certain level. But at the same time they trigger consequently so much interaction about the use, that they unexpectedly stimulate development of new uses and demands for higher tools sophistication. So, at the same time "The tools are the weak spot," says Will Wright, legendary creator of The Sims video game, because they can be quickly overgrown and incompetent to improved skills of the users. Thus the production of a tool is a continuous and dynamic interactive process that incorporates emergent uses and skills. Production directives thus come from the bottom-up and foster development with fresh ideas.
The emergent process of bottom-up outsourcing is most evident as open-source paradigm on the Web. More people access to a tool more possibilities it is that more people will participate in development of better and more sophisticated services of a tool.

Yes, tool is not a product, it is a service.

posted by spela @ 5/20/2006 12:53:00 PM 0 comments