Title: The Evolution of A Digital Ecosystem

Authors: Sungyong Um (Fox School of Business, Temple University)

Abstract: I am studying the evolution of digital ecosystem, which is characterized as an ongoing recombination of heterogeneous digital components such as Application Programming Interface (API) provided by firms including a focal platform owner. I am focusing on the all versions of 23,985 WordPress plug-ins’ source codes from 2004 to 2014. A generative model of network is applied to capture how network centrality and the hierarchical order of sub-network in a network change over time. The studies observe the distinct pattern of the co-evolution of digital ecosystems compared to other open systems.

This contribution to OpenSym 2015 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2015 proceedings (or companion) on or after August 19, 2015.

Title: Software Patents: A Replication Study

Authors: Germán Poo-Caamaño, Daniel M. German (University of Victoria)

Abstract: Previous research has documented the legal and economic aspects of software patents. To study the evolution in the granting of software patents we reproduced and extended part of the empirical study on software patents conducted by Bessen and Hunt. The original study established a criteria to identify software patents, and provided a look at the evolution of patents granted until 2002. We present a simple approach to retrieve patents from the full text database provided by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which is freely accessible. We also present the evolution of software patents since the original study, and which we also present separated by major technological firms. Our research shows a continuous increase in the number of software patents granted higher, both in number of patents granted (in absolute numbers) and in proportion of overall patents (in relative terms). The relevance of studying the evolution of software patents relies in the challenges to find prior-art, either for practitioners looking for patenting as well as for examiners evaluating granting a new patent.

This contribution to OpenSym 2015 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2015 proceedings (or companion) on or after August 19, 2015.

Title: On the openness of digital platforms/ecosystems

Authors: Jose Teixeira, Turku School of Economics (University of Turku)

Abstract: A plenitude of technology is neither developed in-house nor simply outsourced in dyadic relationships. Instead, we are in a new age where technologies are developed by a networked community of actors and organizations, which base their relations dynamically to each other on a common interest. Such dynamic and networked complexity of technology development is often theoretical explored around the concept of platform, and more recently by employing the concept of ecosystem in an analogy to natural ecosystems. Following the success of open-source software, academics have long been examining openness in digital platforms/ecosystems; however most contributions take the perspective of a single stakeholder from the many that constitute a digital platform/ecosystem. Predominantly, they take the sole perspective of platform providers, those bundling hardware and software or more rarely, the perspective of third-party software developers developing valuable software ‘apps’ that add value to the overall platform. In this conceptual article, we grasp openness more holistically, both by acknowledging that openness means different things to different people and involve all stakeholders within the platforms/ecosystems. Towards the development of a theory of openness within digital settings, we propose six novel aspects of openness for enabling a greater understanding of the open-source software movement with a digital platforms/ecosystems perspective. Moreover, we invite scholars to reconsider the more predominating product-dominant logic in open-source software research to a more holistic logic embracing platforms and ecosystem thinking.

This contribution to OpenSym 2015 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2015 proceedings (or companion) on or after August 19, 2015.

Title: The Vienna History Wiki – a Collaborative Knowledge Platform for the City of Vienna

Authors: Bernhard Krabina (KDZ – Centre for Public Administration Research)

Abstract: The Vienna City Archive and the Vienna City Library have joined forces with several other institutions in Vienna, Austria to create the “Wien Geschichte Wiki” (Vienna History Wiki), a knowledge platform for the history of Vienna with more than 34,000 articles and 120,000 visits per month. The wiki is powered by Semantic MediaWiki and serves not only as an online encyclopedia, based on a digitized printed publication for everybody to use and contribute to, but also as a central knowledge base for several administrative departments of the city administration. In a peer-review process, wiki edits are checked before they become visible. The paper highlights the unique aspects of the Vienna History Wiki related to content creation, governance structures and technology choices. A usage log analysis and an online survey have been carried out to gain first insights after six months of operation.

This contribution to OpenSym 2015 will be made available as part of the OpenSym 2015 proceedings (or companion) on or after August 19, 2015.