The word generativity jumps at me while I’m reading Jonathan Zittrain’s new book, “The Future of the Internet – and How to Stop it”. Zittrain defines generativity as  a “system’s capacity to produce unanticipated change through contributions from broad and varied audiences”. Internet, PC, wiki/wikipedia best exemplify generativity. It’s “generativity” what I had in mind and tried to say when I wrote about Internet’s virtuous wheel of innovation.

Generativity hits home. It’s the reason why I’m so genuinely interested in the Android platform (I got to carry one such phone alongside my iPhone). It’s why I put my TV set in early retirement and replaced it with an Internet-enabled one equipped with widget SDK – a generative TV in the making, hopefully. I know that I have given and will be giving my 150% in those jobs that have to do with generative artifacts (luckily, I have had a few of those jobs throughout my career).

Generativity is quite a litmus test for new directions in technology. Take cloud computing. Does it mark a new epoch in generativity? Or is this a mere TCO optimizer?

For sure, security, regulations, net-neutrality pose some great challenges to our collective journey in generativity. I look forward to reading the second half of Zittrain’s book and learning about his proposed solutions.

Zittrain came to visit us at eBay and gave an excellent lecture on “Minds for Sale” — an eye opener on both the positive and negative outcomes of long-tail participation in cyberspace.