The New Ecology 13
Digital Ecosystems, Media Ecologies, and
Technological Determinism
“Digital ecosystem” has become something of a buzzword in recent
years. The business research organisation, Gartner, for example, offers
its services to support organisations that wish to use “digital business ecosystems & the platform economy” to gain the “leverage organizations need to monetize, manage, and measure information as
an asset for competitive advantage”.
8
Beyond such trite phrases, in
the field of information management the notion of digital ecosystems
provides important tools for setting up the architecture required to
sustain technological innovations in cloud computing and the Internet
of things, as discussed by Skilton and Brady among others.
9
Between
2007 and 2013, the concept of a digital business ecosystem formed
an important part of the work of the IEEE Digital EcoSystems and
Technologies Conference (IEEE DEST), covering a wide array of issues including sustainable infrastructure for businesses, healthcare,
and the digital humanities.
10
Nigel Shadbolt, alongside other researchers, has argued that artificial intelligence is contributing to a rise of
social machines, in which the persistent environment of mobile and
wearable technology, as well as sensors, is increasingly orchestrating
human interactions and leading to the emergence of what he calls “social computational power”.
11
Shadbolt offers Wikipedia as an example
of such social computational power at work, whereby the activity of
thousands of volunteers across the globe is co-ordinated not by human
agents in traditional terms (editors with a sole prerogative over gatekeeping), but rather the interaction of those people via the software
platform itself. Likewise, within the field of digital humanities, theorists such as Sheila Anderson and Tobias Blanke have demonstrated
some of the ways in which big data and high-performance computing
can transform scholarship in the field by transferring some of the characteristics of e-Science to arts and humanities research. Drawing on
the ideas of Thomas Hughes regarding complex systems – in which
interacting, interconnected large technology systems can grow from
relatively simple components – such an approach may be even more
important as an increasing amount of content is commodified behind
paywalls: more than ever, scholars in the field must explore and open
up the connections between such large technology systems as business
seeks to compartmentalise them.
12
This tension between large technology systems that enable the kind
of social computational power discussed by Shadbolt and proprietary,
more restrictive ones are very much at play in the confrontations between the Big Five. Although more recently some of these players have
begun to recognise the opportunities present in embracing open digital ecosystems – typically because of a failure to monopolise important
Digital Ecosystems, Media Ecologies, and
Technological Determinism
“Digital ecosystem” has become something of a buzzword in recent
years. The business research organisation, Gartner, for example, offers
its services to support organisations that wish to use “digital business ecosystems & the platform economy” to gain the “leverage organizations need to monetize, manage, and measure information as
an asset for competitive advantage”.
8
Beyond such trite phrases, in
the field of information management the notion of digital ecosystems
provides important tools for setting up the architecture required to
sustain technological innovations in cloud computing and the Internet
of things, as discussed by Skilton and Brady among others.
9
Between
2007 and 2013, the concept of a digital business ecosystem formed
an important part of the work of the IEEE Digital EcoSystems and
Technologies Conference (IEEE DEST), covering a wide array of issues including sustainable infrastructure for businesses, healthcare,
and the digital humanities.
10
Nigel Shadbolt, alongside other researchers, has argued that artificial intelligence is contributing to a rise of
social machines, in which the persistent environment of mobile and
wearable technology, as well as sensors, is increasingly orchestrating
human interactions and leading to the emergence of what he calls “social computational power”.
11
Shadbolt offers Wikipedia as an example
of such social computational power at work, whereby the activity of
thousands of volunteers across the globe is co-ordinated not by human
agents in traditional terms (editors with a sole prerogative over gatekeeping), but rather the interaction of those people via the software
platform itself. Likewise, within the field of digital humanities, theorists such as Sheila Anderson and Tobias Blanke have demonstrated
some of the ways in which big data and high-performance computing
can transform scholarship in the field by transferring some of the characteristics of e-Science to arts and humanities research. Drawing on
the ideas of Thomas Hughes regarding complex systems – in which
interacting, interconnected large technology systems can grow from
relatively simple components – such an approach may be even more
important as an increasing amount of content is commodified behind
paywalls: more than ever, scholars in the field must explore and open
up the connections between such large technology systems as business
seeks to compartmentalise them.
12
This tension between large technology systems that enable the kind
of social computational power discussed by Shadbolt and proprietary,
more restrictive ones are very much at play in the confrontations between the Big Five. Although more recently some of these players have
begun to recognise the opportunities present in embracing open digital ecosystems – typically because of a failure to monopolise important