Pro-Ams: Blurring the lines
Posted by: teddib on: May 19, 2009
As was touched on in my previous writings the distinctions between professionals and amateurs have long since been blurred. We have seen it in many aspects of web 2.0 proliferation. The rise of citizen journalism and collaborative information sites such as Wikipedia indicate that we are no longer solely reliant on what the supposed professional feed to us. In this media landscape can we even make the definition between what the distinctions between a professional and an amateur are?
Charles Leadbeater notes:
“The 20th century was marked by the rise of professionals in medicine, science, education, and politics. In one field after another, amateurs were driven out by people who knew what they were doing and had certificates to prove it. Now that historic shift seems to be reversing. Even as large corporations extend their reach, we’re witnessing the flowering of Pro-Am, bottom-up self-organization”
This notion of Pro-Ams is not a new one. They are people with a passion. A Pro-Am pursues an activity as an amateur, mainly for the love of it, but sets a professional standard. Pro-Ams are unlikely to earn more than a small portion of their income from their pastime but they pursue it with the dedication and commitment associated with a professional. For Pro-Ams, leisure is not passive consumerism but active and participatory; it involves the deployment of publicly accredited knowledge and skills, often built up over a long career. Given the nature of Pro-Am work it usually involves many sacrifices and frustrations.
There is a demand we rethink many of the categories through which we divide up our lives. Pro-Ams are a new social hybrid. Their activities are not adequately captured by the traditional definitions of work and leisure, professional and amateur, consumption and production. We have all heard and most likely used a variety of terms – mostly derogatory and definitely none satisfactory – to describe what people do with their serious leisure time: nerds, geeks, anoraks, enthusiasts, hackers, men in their sheds.
Pro-Ams are knowledgeable, educated, committed and networked, by new technology. The twentieth century was shaped by large hierarchical organisations with professionals at the top. Pro-Ams are creating new, distributed organisational models that will be innovative, adaptive and low-cost.
Charles Leadbeater indicates below where this notion of Pro-Ams fit in our current scale of professional engagement:
Understandably some professionals will find this notion unsettling; and will in turn seek to defend their monopolies. The more enlightened will understand that the landscape is changing. Knowledge is widely distributed, not controlled by a select few in their organisational fortresses. The most powerful, and some would say most intelligent, organisations will enable professionals and amateurs to combine distributed know-how to solve complex problems.
Pro-Ams help to build social capital: networks of relationships that allow people to collaborate, share ideas and take risks together. Social capital can help glue a society together and allow people to trust one another more easily, thus helping them to adjust to change collaboratively and share risks. New media and technology enable Pro-Ams to organize. They’ve embraced the nature of produsage and collective collaboration so it would seem that society is a step behind and needs too to embrace this new form of social hybrid.
4 Responses to "Pro-Ams: Blurring the lines"
May 21, 2009 at 4:56 am
Your blog made for quite an interesting read. I particularly liked the way in which you explained where Pro-Ams fit into modern society and how they organise themselves. I also appreciate your exploration of how the social hybrid of Pro-Ams may be embraced by corporations traditionally susceptible to professional top-down hierarchies.
I felt however, that the tone of your blog tended to promote amateurs and shun professionals. I agree that some professionals and organistations could learn a thing or two from Pro-Ams. However, professionals must be acknowledged for their contributions to society. I believe that it is very important to recognise professionals for their life’s work and achievements. After all, these professionals have also endured frustrations and sacrifices.
Bruns (2009) observed that in reality, it is not so much about pitting amateurs against professionals but rather about contrasting systems of representing knowledge. In which case, it is logical to assume that there is a place for both Pro-Ams and professionals. Rather than competing, perhaps they are both in a position to learn from one another? Imagine the depth and diversity of knowledge that would come from a community made up of both recognised professionals and Pro-Ams!
May 23, 2009 at 3:27 am
Mathilde: I focused my post on the amateur or Pro-Am because i was trying to demonstrate the notion that there is an unclear distinction between what now constitutes an amateur and subsequently a professional. Something I made mention of early in my entry. The purpose of my post was not to define this difference but to point out that this new notion of Pro-Am is blurring the concept of both roles
As for what I identify as a professional in the realm of Citizen Journalism, I don’t have a very strong opinion on the distinctions in this field. Many different people have differing views on what classifies a professional. But if I had to identify someone it would be a classically trained journalists operating in one of these unconventional avenues of journalism. Just because it is termed Citizen Journalism does not mean that a journalist is not capable of engaging in the technology that made the concept possible and do the same thing.
Erin: Thank you for the positive feedback! Re-reading my post I can see how I may have given the impression that I am shunning the professionals. This was not my intention and you are right to validate them. I definitely agree with your point for the greatest amount of success to be gained from the joining of the two subsets as opposed to pitting them against each other. Let’s hope that the big corporations catch on.
June 1, 2009 at 12:58 pm
I enjoyed your post on Pro-Ams. Your entry clearly outlined and explained Pro-Ams and the evolving culture online. A point about Pro-Ams that interests me is motivation; obviously they partake and contribute in their chosen area of interest due to an underlying passion. However at what point does a pro-am become a full fledged professional? Is this transition possible or is pro-am the highest level attainable by the once traditional web user.
There have been a few examples I’m aware of where blogs operated at a Pro-Am level have been purchased by larger corporations (then operating under that new banner) or where they have been turned into books. A site your probably aware of which has experienced this transition is http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/ a wordpress blog (which features the same template as my blog would you believe?) written by Christian Lander, a copytaker by profession and Pro-Am blogger. After experiencing huge popularity this blog went on to be published in book form. It appears that university is no longer the sole route to a career; the internet can too act as an avenue towards a profession.
May 20, 2009 at 7:09 am
Great blog. I really liked how you wrote your article in a simple and straight forward manner. It explaned the Pro Am concept in a clear and uncomplicated way. This blog would be a fantastic point of reference for those people unaware of the Pro Am concept and seeking to learn about it. You covered it well.
Although, at the beginning of your blog you mentioned you would identify the difference between professional and amateur, if one. But I felt as though you focused more on the concept of amateur. How would you identify a professional within the realm of say Citizen Journalism?