Generative systems are technologies with the overall capacity to produce unprompted change driven by large, varied, and uncoordinated audiences.
[1] When generative systems provide a common platform, changes may occur at varying layers (physical, network, application, content) and provide a means through which different firms and individuals may cooperate indirectly and contribute to innovation.
One of the better-known examples is Conway's Game of Life, a cellular automaton.
In 2006, Jonathan Zittrain published The Generative Internet in Volume 119 of the Harvard Law Review.
[1] In this paper, Zittrain describes a technology's degree of generativity as being the function of four characteristics: