Building Digital Infrastructures: Towards an Evolutionary Theory of Contextual Triggers

Past IS research suggests it is challenging to build digital infrastructures and then make sure they grow. While more users, innovative services, and new partners spur infrastructure evolution, we know little of the specific contextual triggers that set these generative mechanisms in motion. To this end, we conduct a case study of a digitalized public transport infrastructure to identify such triggers and explore their impact on its evolution. Our study contributes to the extant literature on digital infrastructure evolution in two distinct ways. First, we analyze, define, and propose three contextual triggers that improve our understanding of the generative mechanisms behind infrastructure development and growth. Second, we rely on this conceptual basis to sketch out the initial contours of a novel evolutionary theory of digital infrastructure triggers.

REVISTING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN BROADBAND DIFFUSION AND REGIONAL SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT: A PRIMER

As they create generative conditions for socioeconomic development ICTs and broadband technology, can be understood as an innovation kernel for system evolution. Whereas for a regional system (a local area), technological progress may at certain times be regarded as exogenous, information endowments and expected level of functionalities are not. An innovation kernel, in fact, cannot exist outside the organization of the regional/local system which it belongs to. To grow and deploy its potentials, a fertile environment capable to adapt pro-actively to the changes it produces is needed. In this paper the conceptual underpinnings of an innovation kernel are overviewed and their relationships with those conventionally addressed in regional science studies briefly discussed. Bbuilding upon the IRES research undertaken as a part of the Piedmont ICT Observatory activities, an effort is made to pinpoint the determinants and processes of regional development on which an innovation kernel would encroach. A conceptual framework is outlined which makes it possible to elicit some main relationships between ICTs, broadband and developmental processes in a regional system.

An investigation on the generative mechanisms of Dark Net markets

In this paper we investigate the Dark Net which is the part of Internet accessible only via special browsers such as Tor. The Dark Net is the home of black-markets for illegal goods and services such as drugs, weapons and fake identities. In this study we investigate the Dark Net as a digital infrastructure over time to address the following research question: what are the forces underlying Dark Net markets? Our empirical approach is based on a set of techniques for accessing Dark Net marketplaces (DNM) and collecting various types of information on sites, transactions and users. We draw also on secondary sources such as reports of police interventions and interviews. Our analysis follows the tradition of critical realism to shed light on the generative mechanisms enabling Dark Net markets to operate and survive

Mapping Big Data into Knowledge Space with Cognitive Cyber-Infrastructure

Big data research has attracted great attention in science, technology, industry and society. It is developing with the evolving scientific paradigm, the fourth industrial revolution, and the transformational innovation of technologies. However, its nature and fundamental challenge have not been recognized, and its own methodology has not been formed. This paper explores and answers the following questions: What is big data? What are the basic methods for representing, managing and analyzing big data? What is the relationship between big data and knowledge? Can we find a mapping from big data into knowledge space? What kind of infrastructure is required to support not only big data management and analysis but also knowledge discovery, sharing and management? What is the relationship between big data and science paradigm? What is the nature and fundamental challenge of big data computing? A multi-dimensional perspective is presented toward a methodology of big data computing.Comment: 59 page

Architectural evolution through softwarisation: on the advent of software-defined networks

Digital infrastructures characteristically expand and evolve. Their propensity for growth can be attributed to the self-reinforcing mechanism of positive network externalities, in which the value and attractiveness of any digital infrastructure to users, is generated from and sustained as a function of the size of its existing user community. The expansion of any digital infrastructure, though, is ultimately underpinned by an inherent architectural capacity to support unanticipated change, that may include changes to architecture itself. However, as digital infrastructures scale, their usage grows, and they encounter and become entangled with other digital infrastructures. As such, the capacity of digital infrastructure architecture to accommodate change, under conditions of positive network externalities that attract users, conversely leads to intensified social and technical dependencies that eventually resist certain kinds of change. That is, it leads to sociotechnical ossifications. Changing underlying architecture in existing digital infrastructures, thus, becomes increasingly prohibitive over time. Information Systems (IS) research suggests that architectural change or evolution in digital infrastructures occurs primarily via a process of replacement through two means. An existing digital infrastructure is either completely replaced with one that has an evolved architecture, or intermediary transitory gateways are used to facilitate interoperability between digital infrastructures of incompatible architectures. Recognising the sociotechnical ossifications that resist architectural evolution, this literature has also tended to focus more on social activities of cultivating change of which the outcome is architectural evolution in digital infrastructures, than directly on architectural evolution itself. In doing so it has provided only a partial account of underlying architectural evolution in digital infrastructures. The findings of this research come from an embedded case study in which changes to underlying architecture in existing networking infrastructures were made. Networking infrastructures are a prime instance of sociotechnically ossified digital infrastructures. The case’s primary data sources included interviews with 39 senior networking and infrastructure virtualisation experts from large Internet and Cloud Service Providers, Standards Development Organisations, Network Equipment Vendors, Network Systems Integrators, Virtualisation Software Technology Organisations, Research Institutes, and as well technical documents. A critical realist analysis was used to uncover generative mechanisms that promote underlying architectural evolution in sociotechnically ossified digital infrastructures. This thesis extends IS understanding of architectural evolution in digital infrastructures with the complementary finding of, architectural evolution through softwarisation. In architectural evolution through softwarisation, the architecture of sociotechnically ossified digital infrastructures, is evolved via the exploitation of features inherent to digital entities, which have been overlooked in extant research on architecture in digital infrastructures

Success of Digital Identity Infrastructure: A Grounded Model of eID Evolution Success

Digital identities (eID) are one of the crucial building blocks of a digital infrastructure. There are major differences between countries of the European Union when it comes to the success of digital identity infrastructure, yet, we lack insights into the conditions for successful digital identity infrastructure evolution (eID evolution success). Taking the outset in a digital infrastructure perspective, we conducted 18 expert interviews in the context of the European Union with the focal case of the eID infrastructure in Germany. We used the grounded theory method to develop a model of eID evolution success. We discuss how the model can be useful to governments, practitioners and researchers alike

The Generative Capacity of Digital Artifacts: A Mapping of the Field

The concept of generativity as the capacity of a technology or a system to be malleable by diverse groups of actors in unanticipated ways has recently gained considerable traction in information systems research. We review a sample of the body of knowledge and identify that scholars commonly investigated generativity in conjunction with digital infrastructures and digital platforms, both of which are complex, networked, and evolving socio-technical systems. Interestingly, other types of digital artifacts have been neglected, despite our initial assumption that the distinct attributes (e.g., reprogrammability, distributedness) of any digital artifact match well with generativity. The literature review also reveals that innovation brought about heterogeneous groups of actors is universally regarded as the goal of generativity, discounting the possibility of exploiting generative systems towards other valuable ends such as organizational agility. Furthermore, scholars commonly discuss generativity in conjunction with the logic of modularity, leading to unresolved questions on how these two concepts might complement each other. Another important contribution of this paper is the systematization of various meanings of generativity, spanning from the philosophical–e.g., generative mechanisms in critical realist research–to a more literal understanding, for instance generativity as synonym to ‘creation of a particular solution’

Cognition-Based Networks: A New Perspective on Network Optimization Using Learning and Distributed Intelligence

IEEE Access Volume 3, 2015, Article number 7217798, Pages 1512-1530 Open Access Cognition-based networks: A new perspective on network optimization using learning and distributed intelligence (Article) Zorzi, M.a , Zanella, A.a, Testolin, A.b, De Filippo De Grazia, M.b, Zorzi, M.bc a Department of Information Engineering, University of Padua, Padua, Italy b Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy c IRCCS San Camillo Foundation, Venice-Lido, Italy View additional affiliations View references (107) Abstract In response to the new challenges in the design and operation of communication networks, and taking inspiration from how living beings deal with complexity and scalability, in this paper we introduce an innovative system concept called COgnition-BAsed NETworkS (COBANETS). The proposed approach develops around the systematic application of advanced machine learning techniques and, in particular, unsupervised deep learning and probabilistic generative models for system-wide learning, modeling, optimization, and data representation. Moreover, in COBANETS, we propose to combine this learning architecture with the emerging network virtualization paradigms, which make it possible to actuate automatic optimization and reconfiguration strategies at the system level, thus fully unleashing the potential of the learning approach. Compared with the past and current research efforts in this area, the technical approach outlined in this paper is deeply interdisciplinary and more comprehensive, calling for the synergic combination of expertise of computer scientists, communications and networking engineers, and cognitive scientists, with the ultimate aim of breaking new ground through a profound rethinking of how the modern understanding of cognition can be used in the management and optimization of telecommunication network

Stakeholders’ perceptions of digital health platform ecosystem generativity

This paper discusses findings from a study of healthcare stakeholders’ perceptions of the enablers and barriers of core-periphery systems and solutions in the digital platform of a Private Tertiary Health Service (PTHS). Using critical realism as a lens, the study involved an embedded case study of three departments in PTHS. The findings show that the platformisation of digital health infrastructure enhanced generativity, including innovation, adoption, and scaling. Further, the research identified platform governance as the area that requires enhancements. This research adds to the limited literature on digital health platform ecosystems by revealing healthcare stakeholders’ perceptions. Our findings can inform strategy for health organisations seeking platformisation of their digital infrastructures. Further, state and national digital healthcare policymakers can use this research to address digital health platform ecosystems challenges, especially in the private sector