  In this paper 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 web-site 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.
