THE AMBIVALENT ONTOLOGY OF DIGITAL ARTIFACTS.

Author List: Kallinikos, Jannis; Aaltonen, Aleksi; Marton, Attila;
MIS Quarterly, 2013, Volume 37, Issue 2, Page 357-370.
Digital artifacts are embedded in wider and constantly shifting ecosystems such that they become increasingly editable, interactive, reprogrammable, and distributable. This state of flux and constant transfiguration renders the value and utility of these artifacts contingent on shifting webs of functional relations with other artifacts across specific contexts and organizations. By the same token, it apportions control over the development and use of these artifacts over a range of dispersed stakeholders and makes their management a complex technical and social undertaking. These ideas are illustrated with reference to (1) provenance and authenticity of digital documents within the overall context of archiving and social memory and (2) the content dynamics occasioned by the findability of content mediated by Internet search engines. We conclude that the steady change and transfiguration of digital artifacts signal a shift of epochal dimensions that calls for rethinking some of the inherited wisdom in IS research and practice.
Keywords: archives; Digital Artifacts; digital objects; information platforms and infrastructures; modularity; search engines
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List of Topics

#178 0.305 digital divide use access artifacts internet inequality libraries shift library increasingly everyday societies understand world initiative initiatives embedded community dimensions
#111 0.141 e-government collective sociomaterial material institutions actors practice particular organizational routines practices relations mindfulness different analysis ways draw agencies drawing ideas
#21 0.133 research information systems science field discipline researchers principles practice core methods area reference relevance conclude set focus propose perspective inquiry
#98 0.102 platform platforms dynamics ecosystem greater generation open ecosystems evolution two-sided technologies investigate generations migration services implications interplay disruptive control markets
#154 0.075 memory support organizations information organizational requirements different complex require development provides resources organization paper transactive depth process outside difficult breadth
#217 0.061 search information display engine results engines displays retrieval effectiveness relevant process ranking depth searching economics create functions incorporate low terms
#80 0.055 organizations new information technology develop environment challenges core competencies management environmental technologies development emerging opportunities levels based change business technical