Immaterial labor seems like the natural way of things on the net. Ritzer, Dean and Jurgenson’s “The Coming of Age of the Prosumer,” provides a nice summary of prosumption as an idea that runs rampant on the Internet but isn’t limited strictly to computer-based activities. Mixing production with consumption has wormed its way into our lives in how we shop for food in supermarkets (cutting out the old-fashioned grocer and more recently the living cashier) and how we dine in fast food restaurants such as McDonalds. We, the prosumers, very willingly engage in labor that cuts costs for businesses. As this article hints at and this week’s other readings take on fully is the sense of community that is tied to the notion of prosumption and how that community perception and loyalty waxes and wanes dependent on the perceived influence of marketing and truthfulness.

The immediate formal result of prosumption on the Internet is evidenced in our co-creation of social network sites (something I had never considered as labor before), blogs, and virtual marketplaces such as Amazon.com. Interestingly, Jenny Davis’ article on Transableism, introduced in “The Coming of Age of the Prosumer,” is about healthy people who want to be disabled, which is relevant to prosumption as a co-creation of identity made possible by a website. I was reminded of Tobias Funke’s “never-nude” affliction on the show Arrested Development. With a supportive online community, a wide variety of identity-shaping psychic alterations seem likely to occur.

The rest of the readings took on the complicated task of figuring out how influence can be judged amongst the prosumer community. From weighing the “usefulness” of online peer reviews to the effects of blog advertising on the community of blog readers, the articles considered the issue from many angles. The ethical concerns of blogs measured in “Blogola…” by Ric Jensen were fascinating in a comparative consideration to journalism, a tradition that upholds certain frameworks and expected behaviors of reportage in an effort to remain a credible source of information. Being a credible source of information also means that you are who you say you are, not a corporation posing as a citizen news source/promotional opportunity.  “Networked Narratives: Understanding WOMM in Online Communities,” by Kozinets, Valck, Wojnicki and Wilner extends the ethical analysis to the blog reader community and how perception of a trustworthy, or at least consistent, blogger may shift when he or she is enlisted by marketers to participate in advertising campaigns. The case studies depicted in this article were a cool way of integrating empirical research.