Open Digital Services and Platforms Minitrack

Permanent URI for this collection

As the available open stack grows, we can see the proliferation of innovative new services on many areas based on for example the opening of the vast data resources collected by authorities and different governmental units, and the increasing availability of new open sensor data (for example, from mobile devices). The innovations in open services can stem from many different sources: traditional R&D, cross-industry initiatives, new entrants that displace incumbents in traditional industries and more andmore from open development processes or crowdsourcing of new ideas from consumers as existing or potential customers.

Until recently, open digital services and platforms has been the domain of computer science and key issues have focused on technical aspects. Now, we are moving into an era of utilizing open data and platforms that are creating novel opportunities and challenges for the creation of new services. This calls for research from various disciplines, including at least information systems science, service science, marketing and computer science to better understand these opportunities and challenges.

We especially encourage submissions of papers describing innovative open services and platforms. The minitrack provides a venue to present findings and, to debate the future of these digital open services and platforms. Relevant topics for this minitrack include (but are not limited to):

  • Novel approaches to development of open data applications
  • Business value of open data services and service systems
  • Aggregation of open and proprietary data
  • Business model destruction/creation caused by open data
  • Applications and models utilizing “quantified self” data
  • Mydata and similar personal data management approaches
  • Location and sensor data based services
  • Open data and service infrastructures
  • Privacy issues related to open data services
  • Blockchain and other open platform technologies
  • Openness in digital service platforms (e.g. sharing economy)

Minitrack Co-Chairs:

Juho Lindman (Primary Contact)
Gothenburg University/Chalmers, Sweden
Email: juho.lindman@ait.gu.se

Matti Rossi
Aalto University, Finland
Email: matti.rossi@aalto.fi

Virpi Tuunainen
Aalto University, Finland
Email: virpi.tuunainen@aalto.fi

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Item
    Pervasive Decentralisation of Digital Infrastructures: A Framework for Blockchain enabled System and Use Case Analysis
    ( 2017-01-04) Glaser, Florian
    Technological innovation and consequential decentralisation are driving forces in the ongoing evolution and increasing openness of digital infrastructures and services. One of the most discussed and allegedly disruptive innovations is the distributed database technology referred to as blockchain. Although it is still in its technological infancy, experimental adoption and customization seem to be in full progress in various potential fields of application ranging from decentralized grids for computation and storage to global financial services. However, the technology and its path of development still entail a lot of common unknowns for practitioners and researchers alike. Especially regarding the question how the technology could amend or be incorporated into the existing landscape of digital services, processes and infrastructures. Hence, in this article we develop an ontology that (1) clearly delineates common terminology, core concepts and components, their relationships as well as innovative features of blockchain technology. It further (2) connects these insights with implications for relevant types of digital market models. Our framework is of high theoretical and practical value as it provides researchers and practitioners a common basis for communication and means for guided analysis of blockchain applicability.
  • Item
    Opportunities and Risks of Blockchain Technologies – A Research Agenda
    ( 2017-01-04) Lindman, Juho ; Tuunainen, Virpi Kristiina ; Rossi, Matti
    Blockchain technologies offer new open source-based opportunities for developing new types of digital platforms and services. While research on the topic is emerging, it has this far been predominantly focused to technical and legal issues. To broaden our understanding of blockchain technology based services and platforms, we build on earlier literature on payments and payment platforms and propose a research agenda divided into three focal areas of 1) organizational issues; 2) issues related to the competitive environment; and 3) technology design issues. We discuss several salient themes within each of these areas, and derive a set of research question for each theme, highlighting the need to address both risks and opportunities for users, as well as different types of stakeholder organizations. With this research agenda, we contribute to the discussion on future avenues for Information Systems research on blockchain technology based platforms and services.
  • Item
    Openness and Legitimacy Building in the Sharing Economy: An Exploratory Case Study about CouchSurfing
    ( 2017-01-04) Marton, Attila ; Constantiou, Ioanna ; Lagoudakos, Georgios
    Sharing economy start-ups are claiming legitimacy by drawing on notions of openness and, at the same time, by adapting to business institutions. We use the case of CouchSurfing to investigate how openness, which has been part of the organization’s raison-d’être, contributed in the legitimacy building efforts and why it was replaced by notions of profitability and revenue generation. Thus, we contribute the concepts of legitimacy and legitimacy building to the academic discourse of openness.
  • Item
    Introduction to Open Digital Services and Platforms Minitrack
    ( 2017-01-04) Lindman, Juho ; Rossi, Matti ; Tuunainen, Virpi