1. 1 Thoughts on social creativity... Taro Adachi Oda Tomohiro Jim Sullivan

2. 2 Process Q: What is “social creativity”? A: We’re not sure, but …. Could we gain a better understanding by contrasting “social creativity” with “individual creativity”?

3. 3 Individual or social creativity? Q: When individuals design new, creative artifacts by simply using group knowledge in a new way, is this individual or social creativity? Q: If one simply changes an environment (new job, new boss, etc.) and is now able to express individual ideas in the new environment, is this social creativity?

4. 4 Social vs. individual creativity Thought experiment: Could 5 top architects collaborate and design a structure as provocative and enduring as one by Frank Lloyd Wright?  NO: when is “individual creativity” more desirable than “social creativity”?  YES: how can we support and even encourage individualism and non-conformance in systems for social creativity?

5. 5 Social creativity and motivation Thought experiment: Why would a creative programmer/designer (ie, Frank Lloyd Wright) want to participate in a social group if they can develop creative products on their own?  What motivates creative individuals to practice their creativity in a social context?  How can we encourage creative individuals who do not naturally want to contribute?

6. 6 Claims ¥Sharing ONLY artifacts and outcomes (i.e. open source code) is NOT sufficient to foster “social creativity”. ¥Sharing domain knowledge (about artifacts and outcomes) is necessary but not sufficient. ¥Sharing artifacts, outcomes and the knowledge used to create these artifacts encourages rich social interactions - and a greater chance that social creativity can occur.

7. 7 Final thoughts... Perhaps social creativity can be thought of as a process … But this group process is very difficult to separate from the creative processes used by individual members in the social group. “Social acknowledgement” of explicit individual contributions is an important, if not essential motivation for social creativity.