Is altruism dead? A critical case study on the paradigm shift in open government data

The broad and continued success of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) has helped to spread its ideology to many other domains, including Open Government Data (OGD), which has recently gained prominence due to its potential for feeding algorithms. Despite the anti-market and anti-corporation values around free sharing, citizen participation, and unrestricted transparency propagated in particular by a highly idealized academic discourse on OGD, our case study of the development of Switzerland’s national OGD portal suggests that the altruistic and philanthropic notion that is often associated with OGD needs to be reconsidered. We show that low use, on one side, and the practical necessity towards cost-recovery behaviors, on the other side, have led to a compromise of the altruistic ideological beginnings of OGD and paved the way for a pragmatic shift towards a more utilitarian, partly even protectionist, view on liberating and sharing data

Desperately seeking the IS in GIS

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are now a widespread and important form of Information Technology (IT) use. In principle, Information Systems (IS) research is concerned with all forms of IT use. Yet despite this importance, GIS remains largely invisible in IS research. This paper illustrates this separation using bibliographic data drawn from both GIS and IS. It reviews discussion within IS as to the nature of the discipline and argues for a closer coupling between IS and GIS. It discusses Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI), mobile computing and public participation GIS as examples of spatially related fields where further IS research would be beneficial

Buyers of ‘lemons’: How can a blockchain platform address buyers’ needs in the market for ‘lemons’?

The second-hand automotive market is one with the least trust from consumers. Customers on the second-hand car market suffer from such problems as the car being in worse condition than initially indicated, accident damage that is not disclosed, fraud, etc. Akerlof, described the market for used cars as an example of the problem of information asymmetries and resulting quality uncertainty. In order to cope with quality uncertainties, used car buyers actively engage themselves in information seeking. Blockchain technology promises to automatize the tracking of cars through their lifecycles and provide reliable information at any point in time it is needed. In our study, we investigate the problems car buyers face during information seeking and propose requirements for the design of a blockchain-based system to address these

From Solution Trap to Solution Patchwork: Tensions in Digital Health in the Global Context

This paper problematizes underlying assumptions in Design Science Research – and Information Systems Research more broadly by conceptualizing the „solution trap“. The solution trap is caused by the incompatibility of co-existing solutions in complex socio-technical contexts. Information systems bring diverse cultures and theories together, causing tensions in the different institutional logics. We emphasize the need for a nuanced understanding of context unevenness and propose solution patchwork as a coordination approach to evade the solution trap. Substantiating the preliminary insights and propositions with a literature review and further empirical grounding will transition this research-in-progress to a full paper

Buyers of Lemons: Addressing Buyers’ Needs in the Market for Lemons with Blockchain Technology

The automotive market is in the top three markets with the least trust from consumers. In particular, in the second-hand car market, consumers suffer from such problems as the car being in worse condition than initially indicated, accident damage that is not disclosed, fraud, etc. Akerlof, described the market for used cars as an example of the problem of information asymmetries and resulting quality uncertainty. In order to cope with quality uncertainties, used car buyers actively engage themselves in information seeking. Blockchain technology promises to automatize the tracking of cars through their lifecycles and provide reliable information at any point in time it is needed. In our study, we investigate the problems car buyers face during information seeking and propose requirements for the design of a blockchain-based system to address these

From Solution Trap to Solution Patchwork: Tensions in Digital Health in the Global Context

This paper problematizes underlying assumptions in Design Science Research – and Information Systems Research more broadly by conceptualizing the „solution trap“. The solution trap is caused by the incompatibility of co-existing solutions in complex socio-technical contexts. Information systems bring diverse cultures and theories together, causing tensions in the different institutional logics. We emphasize the need for a nuanced understanding of context unevenness and propose solution patchwork as a coordination approach to evade the solution trap. Substantiating the preliminary insights and propositions with a literature review and further empirical grounding will transition this research-in-progress to a full paper

The Shifting Legitimation of an Information System: Local, Global and Large Scale

ICT infrastructure and information systems have come to play a vital role in globalization. Walsham (2008) highlights three major aspects of this phenomenon: software outsourcing, virtual teams, and information system (IS) roll-out. In this paper we examine shifts over several years of globally distributed development and roll-out of an open source information system targeted at the public health care sector in developing countries, which touches on all three aspects. In following the development of an system as it co-evolved with the various institutional settings in which it was embedded, we highlight shifting sources of legitimation in institutional processes involved in health information systems implementation. The attention to changing sources of acceptance and legitimation frames our view on knowledge between local cultures and related stakeholders, in the interplay with global FOSS development