Innovation in the fringes of software ecosystems: the role of socio-technical generativity

Abstract

Understanding the way information systems grow and change over time and the role of different contributors in these processes is central to current research on software development and innovation. In relation to this, there is an ongoing discourse on how the attributes of software platforms influence who can innovate on top of them and the kind of innovations possible within the larger ecosystem of technologies and people these platforms are part of. This discourse has paid limited attention to innovation unfolding in the fringes of the ecosystems peripheral to and disconnected from where the central software components are developed and where the resources necessary for digital innovation are scarce. Drawing upon Zittrain's characteristics of generativity and Lane's concept of generative relationships, the key contribution of this paper is a socio-technical perspective on innovation and generativity in this setting. We build this perspective of socio-technical generativity based on a case study of software innovation activities in Malawi on top of the health information system software platform DHIS2 developed in Norway. This case illustrates how the technical attributes of the platform played a key role in concert with human relationships in shaping innovation activities in Malawi.

Digital platforms for development: Foundations and research agenda

“…The subcategories we identified in this emergent process intentionally did not correspond to the subcategories we described earlier in Section 2; the latter, corresponding to general subtypes of Of the 49 publications we reviewed, the earliest one was published in 2011, and most of the papers were published from 2016 onwards (37 out of 49). In general, the underlying technology behind the platforms reviewed referred to relatively basic technologies and architectures, such as SMS or simple websites, yet there were also some exceptions (e.g., Msiska & Nielsen, 2018;Noutat et al, 2016). Geographically, most publications concentrated on countries in Africa and Asia, with only two focusing on Latin America.…”

Digital Innovation: A Research Agenda for Information Systems Research in Developing Countries

“…Digital innovation activities require the ability to mobilize other actors to release the potential of platforms, to combine and recombine components, rapidly respond to changes in constellations of components and attribute new meanings and usages to existing technologies [20]. Technical attributes of platforms play key roles in concert with human relationships in shaping the socio-technical generativity of digital technologies [21]. Examples of digital innovations range from open source software projects, Google's shared platform and new mobile services.…”

“…Another example is Dittrich [43] and her discussion of platforms as "half products", and how they have to be configured, customized and extended to fit a specific context. Other examples include the discussion of Diga and May [29] on how ecosystems can both facilitate and hinder the participation of certain communities in digital innovation, the discussion of different types of digital innovation networks by Lyytinen et al [17] and the conceptualization of socio-technical generativity and role of human capacities in digital innovation in developing countries by Msiska and Nielsen [21].…”

Leveraging Software Platform Capabilities to Support HIV (ART) Treatment Adherence Management: A Case from Sierra Leone

“…This collaborative approach is especially characteristic of open-source software projects like the DHIS2 (see for example: www.dhis2.org/contact). Within such global communities, different types of expertise are available to provide assistance when needed [38].…”