CreativeIT Pilot: Learning from Creativity in the Wild: Leveraging the Success of Creative Content Systems

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For researchers and developers of creativity support tools, online spaces of "user-generated content" (UGC) such as the video-sharing site Youtube.com and the photo-sharing site Flickr.com are of particular interest. These systems are massive, diverse spaces for creative production, interaction, collaboration and appropriation. This project investigates how specific UGC systems, those we call Creative Content Systems (CCS), are being used by literally millions of people to generate and disseminate their creative products. A better understanding of the dynamics of participation in such systems would allow us to both design more effective system support for creative activities in future UGC system, as well as providing us with a richer model of IT-enabled creativity. The project's intellectual merit comes from three contributions. First, this work will generate enhanced models of creative practice in online communities. Amateur/professional interactions have become increasingly prevalent in online communities and the differences between these populations in creative practice and intended audiences needs to be better understood and supported. Second, the research will generate and assess design recommendations for next generation creative support technology. Generating a better understanding of the common and distinct factors of amateur and professional creative practice is a necessary precondition for evolving the next generation of support tools for creative individuals and creative communities. Third, this work will generate enhanced knowledge of successful facilitation of amateur activity. Via the design recommendations for next generation CCS design, creative professionals will benefit from knowledge and technology to help them leverage amateur creativity and contribution. Leveraging the success of these systems will lead to broader impacts by encouraging innovation and creativity beyond this project's current participants and systems. Though this project is set in the context of creative cultural activity, the findings will be more broadly applicable to increasing participation in STEM-related projects that wish to enlist amateur contributions and volunteers. The results from this study will be disseminated broadly to academic communities including, but not limited to, Creativity and Cognition, CSCW, and CHI.