prosumerism

Prosumerism is the blurring of the distinction between the producer and the consumer, a blending of people's hobbies and their jobs, and that is a beautiful thing. Indeed it is a magical achievement of the maturation of the Industrial and Digital Revolutions that have made that which was formerly exotic, expensive, and rare into the realm of the common and easily obtained.

But some don't view prosumerism as being so much an agent of change in and of itself as it is a reflection of changes that are already happening anyway, and at a breathtaking pace. It is best viewed as an offshoot of the consumer side of the equation, with companies doing what they always do - filling a need had by the market. Technology now allows people to connect and share instantly, and since they can, they will do exactly that. If they could have done it earlier then they would have also done that. The innate desire has always been there, but until recently the means to make it happen have not. Quora users, as an obvious example, exist both as producers and consumers of content because they want to and they can. Only the second half of that sentence is new.

I think the term is a nice way to describe some of the cool and magical  things that are happening in today's world, but not really much more than an end result of things working the way they always have. We are truly lucky to be alive to witness these times.