What is sharing
economy?
The sharing economy is an ever-growing consumer driven environment,
allowing companies/people to share their goods and services for a cost through
online transactions. For example, due to this sharing economy you can rent
cars, rent places to stay, even purchase items and pay later. The sharing economy allows consumers to earn
money creating a cycle, for example companies like Uber where drivers simply
download an app, choosing their hours and allowing them to have flexibility
whilst also earn extra income. The same with Airbnb which allows you to put
your apartment/house/flat online and you become a host, allowing you to choose
if you want to rent out your whole place or even just a room, earning you extra
income through the internet.
The creative industry is one of those affected by the
sharing economies,
Tools that we pay for like Adobe Creative Cloud, which has
all the creative software’s you would need and the cloud holding your work/data
have made it easier for artists in terms of being able to produce work from the
comfort of your own home and also being able to access your work wherever you
are. However, does this effect how our work is being used and seen? With
technology evolving and it becoming easier to be able to have apps and websites
generate content for you, why would people bother to pay a professional? For
example, there are apps available to create a logo for your business,
generating different choices at the click of a button.
Another example of the sharing economy is an app I discovered
recently through social media when a Youtube I watch vlogged about it. The app
is called, “Too Good To Go” and has launched across Europe in order to reduce
food waste. The purpose of the app is to give restaurants a platform to sell
their surplus food for cheaper, whether this being at the end of the day when
they need to get rid of food rather than throwing it away. This app is a great
start to engaging businesses to help reduce food waste and grow their income in
the meantime as well as making food cheaper for those who may not be able to
afford as much.
How is social media used today in creative collaboration?
Social media has redefined social norms, it is no longer a separate
entity, it has merged into our everyday lives. The likes of Facebook, Twitter
and Instagram are platforms to create and share content in a free way or you
could be paid for posting online due having a large following. This is
something that has had an impact on the creative industry as it allows them to get
their work out there and recognised as well as building an online portfolio to
maximize their businesses.
An example of brands using these platforms, is Benefit, a
makeup brand. The company took away 20+ Instagram influencers on a Christmas break
which involved activity’s revolving around their products, this is a great form
of marketing as it grabs the attention of the target audience because the
people invited are posting images of themselves with the products for their own
content but also making the viewers want to buy them.
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I myself use Instagram and Facebook but use both for different reasons, I have the Instagram app using it to keep up with my friends, some family and mainly celebrities and brands that I like, whilst also uploading photos and ‘story’ updates of myself and things that I do. Whereas Facebook I do not have the app as I do not use it enough to have the app on my phone I use to keep in touch with family, friends and also work or university colleagues.
How is gamification (ludology) used in share economies?
The study of games is used in share economies in order to acquire
thousands of players and to build a powerful online community. The term ‘sharing
economy” can hold different meanings to one which would be associated financially.
The exchanges that take place allow the players to swap items with other
players (World of Warcraft) in order to better themselves or something they can
use to help them level up.
The creative industry is able to collaborate through gamification
for example, Grand Theft Auto uses postmodern elements by exhibiting the
hyperreal into their game. The streets you drive in are “real” streets in LA
and the music on the radio is from “real” artists such as Rhianna and Eminem. This
creates a hyperreal world for the player, making it more of an experience for
them. This promotes the artists songs and also targets different players to
want to play/buy the game, earning both party’s income.
Another MMOR game that collaborates with creatives is the
popular game Fortnite, Fornite is an online video game that launched in 2017
and has over 125 million players. The game collaborates with Twitch.tv a live
streaming video platform, designed as a platform for players to stream their
selves and allows the viewers to subscribe to your channel earning you money. The two companies joined together to hold an
event lasting over four days, called Twitch Rivals x Fortnite Summer Skirmish,
with a two-million-dollar prize. Events like these generate hype around both companies
gaining more followers as well as the creatives that are streaming. This allows
creatives to share their content and get known in the industry through it as
well as falling into the sharing economy as you can earn a large income through
this collaboration. This is also a great opportunity for the creative industry
to collaboration through gamification.
A gaming concepts to help the creative industries
collaborate within the gaming world is a popular concept, micro transactions. Micro
transactions help to entice players old or new by holding promotional offers
throughout the duration of a game’s lifetime. For example, subscription-based
games such as, World of Warcraft, offers free weekend returns to pre-existing
players where they can play the current expansion for a short period of time
with the hopes of gaining more interest in the game and resubbing. Each
expansion contains new items, mounts, armour and places to explore within the
game giving opportunities to creatives to launch more designs into the game
making it bigger and better for the players.
Overall, online sharing, combined with crowd sourced
collaboration is redefining the creative industries futures as it is growing
bigger and stronger every single day. Social media delivers a quick easy and
growable platform for people allowing them to share their work or even publish
online to selected people, it allows us to grow our income by ‘renting’ and
selling our possesions such as our homes, cars and even unwanted food. This is
the way the future is evolving leaving the creative industry no choice but to
join the movement, I myself think that when it comes to my own career after
university will have the online sharing community as my way of putting myself
out there as a creative, via social media sites like Linkedin which allows you
to share an online CV through filtered searches for potential employers to find
and message you if they like your profile.
Jeff Howe describes crowdsourcing as “the current shift in
the balance between producers and consumers of media caused by the internet”[1] the
internet opens up a worldwide platform to employees and outsources like an “open
call”. This allows the creative industry to form the collaborations and obtains
unlimited “knowledge and creative potential”[2]. This has been evident throughout with examples such as Benefit using Instagram influencers and Youtube stars in order to gain free advertising through social media.
[1]
Roet,
L. (2011). Book Review: Crowdsourcing, How the Power of the Crowd is Driving the
Future of Business by Jeff Howe.. Available:
https://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/blog/2011/09/18/book-review-crowdsourcing-how-the-power-of-the-crowd-is-driving-the-future-of-business-by-jeff-howe/.
Last accessed 17th December 2018.
[2]
Roet,
L. (2011). Book Review: Crowdsourcing, How the Power of the Crowd is Driving the
Future of Business by Jeff Howe.. Available:
https://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/blog/2011/09/18/book-review-crowdsourcing-how-the-power-of-the-crowd-is-driving-the-future-of-business-by-jeff-howe/.
Last accessed 17th December 2018.
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