The work of mapping and the mapping of work: prosumer roles in crowdsourced maps

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an analysis of crowdsourcing work with a particular focus on exploring what forces and characteristics of the collaboration practices and technologies encourage and discourage prosumer work behaviours. Data were gathered through depth interviews with prosumers of a crowdsourced digital nautical map, observational netnographic research of prosumers on angling forums, and interviews and meetings with the map providers. Incorporating research on consumer work and prosumption, three distinct prosumer roles are identified based on how angling prosumers differentially produce and consume the crowdsourced maps. These roles show multiple behaviours along the prosumption continuum, and in so doing extend the continuum by introducing a second dimension – work as private versus public prosumer activity. It concludes by offering suggestions for marketers to engage with prosumers in crowdsourcing contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Prosumption
• prosumption continuum
• qualitative research
• consumer work
• crowdsourcing

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University Summer Research Fund. The authors would like to thank Zach Weaver for his assistance in data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. According to Ritzer’s (2015a) conceptualisation of the prosumption continuum, every productive act also entails levels of consumption. However, in this paper we focus on the end users in the marketplace so we do not focus on the forms of ‘consumption’ undertaken by the company, Navionics.

2. WAZE explicitly credits its success as being founded on millions of ‘friends’ on the road ‘working together towards a common goal: to outsmart traffic and get everyone the best route to work and back, every day’ (emphasis added) (Waze.com). To approximate the value of this collective work, in 2013 Google acquired WAZE for $1.1bn (Harlan, 2015) and they are the world’s largest crowdsourced road mapping company.

3. Bathymetry is the study of underwater depths and submerged terrains, such as lakebeds. Bathymetric charts are the physical representations of these depths and terrains in contoured visual form.

4. InDepth Outdoors; iBoats; Cruisersforum; Thehulltruth; fishsniffer; floridasportman.

5. As interviewee Gerry Chabert was deaf, the interview was conducted via Skype instant messaging rather than voice.

6. ‘Pre-fishing’ is the preparatory phase that anglers go through before they go on the water. Navionics maps and app are often used at this phase. For instance, many anglers recounted checking weather, temperature, depths and various Community Edit contributions the night before a fishing expedition. Based on this, many would then plot their route and enter it into the map for use when on the water.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University Summer Research Fund.

Notes on contributors

Aron Darmody

Aron Darmody is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University, Boston, MA. His areas of research include consumer labour, prosumption, marketing and identity, and cultural studies of marketing practice. He has published in Journal of Consumer Culture, Journal of Macromarketing, and Consumption, Markets and Culture.

Mujde Yuksel

Mujde Yuksel is Assistant Professor of Marketing at Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University, Boston, MA. Her areas of interest include consumer empowerment, entertainment and sports marketing, and digital consumption. Before completing her PhD at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mujde received her MBA, specialising in sports marketing. She has forthcoming publications in the Journal of Consumer Marketing and European Sport Management Quarterly.

Meera Venkatraman

Meera Venkatraman is Professor of Marketing at Sawyer Business School, Suffolk University, Boston, MA. Her current research focuses on consumers’ use of digital technologies to produce and consume new products and services. She has published in the Journal of Business Research, Psychology and Marketing, International Market Review and Journal of International Business Studies.