The Practices of Unpaid Third-Party Developers – Implications for API Design

To draw on the innovation capabilities of third-party developers many organizations are currently deploying open application programming interfaces (API’s). While third-party services may offer commercial opportunities for independent software firms, a large portion of existing third-party software are undertaken without any financial compensation. Although unpaid developers offers a potential source for innovation of end-user services, the current literature has largely overlooked how these unpaid actors use and appropriate the technology provided by organizations. To this end, this research pays specific attention to the specific practices of unpaid developers. The data used for analysis were collected through a programming contest – a hackathon – where unpaid developers gather to craft end-user services. Through an ethnographic lens we present a number of recurrent activities and patterns of action employed by developers and from this analysis we present implications for API designers seeking to attract unpaid developers

Open Data Standards: Vertical Industry Standards to Unlock Digital Ecosystems

Standards are considered an essential means to facilitate value creation from open data. Despite this importance, we find that empirical studies of open data standards have not been conducted in proportion to its importance. In particular, the literature has insofar been silent about why specific standards are chosen and how these standards are implemented. To this end, we report from an action research project with the Swedish public transport industry, where open data standards were both chosen and implemented. Consistent with the literature, we find standards were selected based on expected increased attractivity for re-users. Also, and more surprisingly, we found that open data standards were chosen as a means to harness resources in adjacent digital ecosystems. Finally, our findings convey that implementing open data standards may hamper the possibility to publish datasets, with its original qualities

Third-Party Development for Multi-Contextual Services: On the Mechanisms of Control

The increasing adoption of nomadic devices and the associated use of information in numerous use situations pose new challenges for the ISD practice; handling the development of such multi-contextual services covering a broader vignette of users, devices and use situations than typically associated with ISD. Recently organizations have started tapping into development resources in large networks of third-party developers. Such development is enabled through the use of software platforms where developers through boundary resources, such as APIs, may access and extend functionality in new ways. Yet, studies on how organizations are able to control this type of development remains scarce. By synthesizing theory on control and boundary objects we aim at putting a new perspective and gain a greater understanding of how organizations attempt to control such development efforts. As an illustration, we draw upon a case study of a public transportation company which through deployment of a software platform is provided access to a large body of third-party developers. We use this case to study the measures taken to control development

The Design of Open Platforms: Towards an Emulation Theory

The enrolment of third-party developers is essential to leverage the creation and evolution of data ecosystems. When such complementary development takes place without any organizational consent, however, it causes new social and technical problems to be solved. In this paper, we advance platform emulation as a theoretical perspective to explore the nature of such problem-solving in the realm of open platforms. Empirically, our analysis builds on a 10-year action design research effort together with a Swedish authority. Its deliberate change agenda was to transform unsolicited third-party development into a sanctioned data ecosystem, which led to a live open platform that is still in production use. Theoretically, we synthesize and extend received theory on open platforms and offer novel product and process principles for this class of digital platforms

CROWDPUSHING: THE FLIP SIDE OF CROWDSOURCING

Activities and initiatives of co-creation are traditionally seen as a way for organizations to gain value through the involvement of certain actors in their environment. We notice an implicit assumption in current theoretical conceptualizations that co-creation is initiated and driven exclusively by organizations. However, it appears that co-creation activities may also be driven by third-party actors outside organizations. Based on interviews and secondary data from a public transport company in Stockholm, Sweden, we noticed that third party developers of services, that gained a large and diverse user base, were driving co-creation activities with the respective organization. Subsequently, based on our findings, we introduce the term crowdpushing to denote externally driven co-creation activities and frame four propositions to describe how co-creation activities are motivated and driven. Our findings contribute to a broader understanding of co-creation and have implications for its design and deployment

Lessons from the Regulation of E-scooters through the MDS Standard: Policy Lessons for Connected Vehicles

Connected vehicles generate new data streams that present promising opportunities for policymakers to monitor and learn from events and behavior. To explore what we can learn from how public entities leverage ubiquitous data streams for policy development and enforcement, we draw on a case study of the standard Mobility Data Specification (MDS) and its use by cities to regulate E-scooter operators. Our findings suggest that (1) the richness of real-time data changes the speed of policy revision, (2) data access enables moving some micro-decisions to the edge, and (3) policy will be formulated as fixed or flexible with different amendment rules

Challenges When Digital Services for Sustainable EverydayTravel is Innovated

This short paper introduce and investigates challenges when digital services for sustainable everyday travel is innovated. The notions of sustainable innovation, energy informatics persuasive technology and service ecosystem is used as a basis for a vision that facilitate the development and evaluation of persuasive solutions for sustainable travel. Based in this vision different challenges for innovation of digital services is discovered and research questions presented

BEYOND INNOVATION CONTESTS: A FRAMEWORK OF BARRIERS TO OPEN INNOVATION OF DIGITAL SERVICES

Recently, the interest in the innovation of digital services based on open public information (i.e. open data) has increased dramatically. Innovation contests, such as idea competitions and digital innovation contests, have become popular instruments to accelerate the development of new service ideas and prototypes. However, only a few of the service prototypes developed at innovation contests become viable digital services. In order to strengthen the role of innovation contests as innovation instruments, we propose a framework of innovation barriers to open innovation of digital services. The framework has been designed using a systematic research approach including a literature review of existing barriers, an online survey with participants before an innovation contest, and systematic follow-up interviews with teams participating in the contest. The framework consists of 18 innovation barriers and is intended to be used when organizing innovation contests. It supports the process after the contest when prototypes are transformed into viable digital services. For future research, we suggest the framework to be validated in a longitudinal study involving additional cases. Furthermore, we suggest using the framework as a starting point for constructing guidelines that can help in designing innovation contests

Extending digital infrastructures : a typology of growth tactics

Digital infrastructures enable delivery of information services in functional areas such as health, payment, and transportation by providing a socio-technical foundation for partnership governance, resource reuse, and system integration. To effectively serve new purposes and emerging possibilities, however, a key question concerns how an infrastructure can be extended to cater for future services in its functional area? In this paper, we approach such digital infrastructure growth as a challenge related to the alignment of new partners whose capabilities spur innovative services that attract more users. We advance an initial typology that covers four growth tactics (i.e., adding services, inventing processes, opening identifiers, and providing interfaces) with potential to set extension of infrastructures in motion. We then explore the proposed typology by investigating the ways in which its particular tactics successfully extended the scope of a digital infrastructure for public transportation. Our insights invite IS scholars to engage more deeply in the development of growth tactics, which achieve infrastructure extensions that make service delivery durable

Extending Digital Infrastructures: A Typology of Growth Tactics

Digital infrastructures enable delivery of information services in functional areas such as health, payment, and transportation by providing a sociotechnical foundation for partnership governance, resource reuse, and system integration. To effectively serve emerging possibilities and changing purposes, however, a key question concerns how an infrastructure can be extended to cater for future services in its functional area. In this paper, we approach such digital infrastructure growth as a challenge of aligning new partners whose digital capabilities spur innovative services that attract more users. We advance an initial typology that covers four growth tactics (i.e., adding services, inventing processes, opening identifiers, and providing interfaces) with the potential to set extension of infrastructures in motion. We then explore the proposed typology by investigating the ways in which its particular tactics successfully extended the scope of a digital infrastructure for public transportation in Stockholm, Sweden. Our insights invite IS scholars to engage more deeply in the development of growth tactics that achieve infrastructure extensions necessary for improving the durability of service delivery