Abstract
In this article we argue that there is a trade-off between generativity and originality in online communities that support open collaboration. We build on foundational theoretical work in peer production to formulate and test a series of hypotheses suggesting that the generativity of creative works is associated with moderate complexity, prominent authors, and cumulativeness. We also formulate and test three hypotheses that these qualities are associated with decreased originality in resulting derivatives. Our analysis uses a rich data set from the Scratch Online Community-a large website where young people openly share and remix animations and video games. We discuss the implications of this trade-off for the design of peer production systems that support amateur creativity.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 643-663 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | American Behavioral Scientist |
Volume | 57 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 2013 |
Externally published | Yes |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Social Psychology
- Cultural Studies
- Education
- Sociology and Political Science
- General Social Sciences
Keywords
- creativity
- online community
- peer production
- remixing
- scratch