I was reading a post on Adactio titled The Framework Age. The article made an interesting correlation between how the Internet and web services are evolving and how Music evolved in the early to mid 20th century. It was specifically referencing a lecture given by Liz Danzico in which she tells the story of a musician who created an album based off the concept of “creative instability.” This begs the question, “What is creative instability?”
Explanation
The boiled down answer is that creative instability is working within a loosely defined set of rules to create an aggregate work. It also seems to have connotations of not having a tangible or exactly repeatable results. For instance you may repeat the same basic sequence of events, but you will have a very hard time repeating it exactly.
Demonstration
There are a few different websites which demonstrate this concept.
OK OK, so really any online micro blogging site allows for this, but let me explain. Twitter has a couple rules. You see on your home page what people you follow “tweet,” you can use @name to single out an individual, and you can use #tag to tag a post. This provides a basic method of interaction between specific users, as well as the ability to group what you’re talking about into semi-sane organizational structures.
Such a simple structure allows for incredible versatility. All of a sudden you have an online means of playing battleship! Zach: @tom B4 #battleship, Tom: @zach Miss! #battleship Anything you can do within 140 characters you now have an online means of making this happen. bam.
YouTube
Yes yes, the infamous YouTube. The online social hub of individually created movies. YouTube is possibly the embodiment of the concept of creative instability. Someone posts a video, someone else responds. A third party joins in and then comes a fourth! Within the timespan of a few hours you all of a sudden have a television show episode (sort of).
Improv Everywhere
Yes, I realize ImprovEverywhere is not a web service. However it is a call to action which has recently manifested in their sister site, UrbanPrankster. Imagine groups of people all over the world doing fun and crazy stuff like re-enacting the start of the revolutionary war with a squirt gun battle. That is creative instability. Right. There.
Application
Now as a web application developer there is a series of questions which I now have to ask myself.
Should I apply creative instability to my web application?
A better question is “Would the users of my software benefit from being able to respond, interact with,or build upon the work of other users?” I’ll be honest here, sometimes the answer is no. However, sometimes is really the defining term there. Nearly anything that can be done alone is improved by being done in a group setting. Value is always changed when someone adds something new. This change can be positive (For instance, a brilliant video response to the Batman Trailer) or it can be negative (For instance the comment on said video which simply states “homo”). The trick to deciding on what aspects and how much creative instability you want to add lies simply in determining what functionality will allow the greatest positive benefit.
How do I apply creative instability to my web application?
The answer is both simple and not simple. The simple answer is “You let people interact with each other! DUH!” but the right answer is slightly more complex. The example that is used in the article talks about a musician who brings forward 6 pieces of paper with names of musicians he wants to play with for his album. This is what I call the Specific Individual Limiting concept.
Essentially specific individual limiting means “Limit who I interact with to people I want to interact with!” While there is some appeal in interacting with the internet as a whole, there are also huge plusses to only interacting with those you want to interact with.
- Privacy - If only the people I want to see this can see this, then I have some measure of privacy
- Quality - If only the people I want to expound upon or change this can, then the quality is limited by whom I specifically suggest
Admittedly this is imperfect, and other models should be considered (maybe a “merit based” system which allows open interaction after you have proven your capacity to add value instead of detract from it?) but I think overall it’s an interesting concept.
Tags: Adactio, collaboration, creative instability, frameworks, ImprovEverywhere, Liz Danzico, music, social, Twitter, UrbanPrankster, YouTube
Interesting breakdown of the Web 2.0 world. Have you heard of 4chan? It’s a little (well, a lot) risque, mostly because it doesn’t follow your “specific individual limiting concept.” But it’s also a place where trends can be set (ie that stupid cat picture with poor English captions).
4Chan is an example of negative value ;).