We propose a design theory that tackles dynamic complexity in the design for Information Infrastructures (IIs) defined as a shared, open, heterogeneous and evolving socio-technical system of Information Technology (IT) capabilities. Examples of IIs include the Internet, or industry-wide Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) networks. IIs are recursively composed of other infrastructures, platforms, applications and IT capabilities and controlled by emergent, distributed and episodic forms of control. II's evolutionary dynamics are nonlinear, path dependent and influenced by network effects and unbounded user and designer learning. The proposed theory tackles tensions between two design problems related to the II design: (1) the bootstrap problem: IIs need to meet directly early users’ needs in order to be initiated; and (2) the adaptability problem: local designs need to recognize II's unbounded scale and functional uncertainty. We draw upon Complex Adaptive Systems theory to derive II design rules that address the bootstrap problem by generating early growth through simplicity and usefulness, and the adaptability problem by promoting modular and generative designs. We illustrate these principles by analyzing the history of Internet exegesis.
AanestadM., and HansethO. (2002). Growing Networks: Detours, stunts and spillovers, Proceedings of COOP 2002, Fifth International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems, St. Raphael, France, 4–6th June 2002.
2.
AbbateJ. (1999). Inventing the Internet, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
3.
AgrestiW.W. (1986). The Conventional Software Life-Cycle Model: Its evolution and assumptions, in AgrestiW.W. (ed.) New Paradigms for Software Development, Washington, D.C: IEEE Computer Society.
4.
ArthurW.B. (1994). Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
5.
AttewellP. (1992). Technology Diffusion and Organizational Learning: The case of business computing, Organization Science3(1): 1–19.
6.
AxelrodR.M., and CohenM.D. (1999). Harnessing Complexity: Organizational implications of a scientific frontier, New York: Free Press.
7.
BaldwinC., and ClarkK. (2000). Design Rules, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
8.
BCS/RAE (2004). The challenges of complex IT projects, British Computer Society and Royal Academy Engineering Project [www document], http://www.bcs.org/upload/pdf/complexity.pdf (accessed August 2009).
9.
BenbyaH., and McKelveyB. (2006). Toward Complexity Theory of Information System Development, Information, Technology and People19(1): 12–34.
10.
BenklerY. (2006). The Wealth of Networks. How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press.
11.
Berners-LeeT., and FischettiM. (1999). Weaving the Web-The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of World Wide Web by Its Inventor, San Francisco: Harper-Collins.
12.
BoehmB.W. (1976). Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on ComputersC-25(12): 1226–1241.
13.
BolandR., LyytinenK., and YooY. (2006). Path Creation with Digital 3D Representations: Networks of innovation in architecture, engineering and construction, Organization Science18: 631–647.
14.
BowkerG., and StarS.L. (1999). Sorting Things Out. Classification and Its Consequences, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
15.
BraaJ., HansethO., MohammedW., HeywoodA., and ShawV. (2007). Developing Health Information Systems in Developing Countries – The flexible standards strategy, MIS Quarterly31(2): 381–402.
16.
CarpaF. (1996). The Web of Life. A new scientific understanding of living systems, London: Harper Collins.
17.
Cats-BarilW., and JelassiT. (1994). The French Videotext System Minitel: A successful implementation of national information technology infrastructure, MIS Quarterly18(1): 1–20.
18.
ChungS., Kelly RainerR., and LewisB. (2003). The Impact of Information Technology Infrastructure Flexibility on Strategic Alignment and Applications Implementation, Communications of the Association of Information Systems11: 191–206.
19.
CiborraC., BraaK., CordeliaA., DahlbomB., FaillaA., HansethO., HepsøV., LjungbergJ., MonteiroE., and SimonK. (2000). From Control to Drift. The Dynamics of Corporate Information Infrastructures, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
20.
ContiniF., and LanzaraG.F. (eds.) (2009). ICT and Innovation in the Public Sector, Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
21.
CordeliaA. (2004). Standardization in Action, Paper presented at European Conference on Information Systems, Turku, Finland, 14–16th June 2004.
22.
DamsgaardJ., and LyytinenK. (2001). Building Electronic Trading Infrastructure: A private or public responsibility, Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce11(2): 131–151.
23.
DavidP.A. (1986). Understanding the Economics of QWERTY, in ParkerW.N. (ed.) Economic History and the Modern Economist, Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell.
24.
DavidP.A. (2001). The Beginnings and Prospective Ending of ‘End-to-End’ – An evolutionary perspective on internet architecture, Working Papers 01012, Stanford University, Department of Economics [www document] http://ideas.repec.Org/p/wop/stanec/01012.html.
25.
DeMarcoT. (1978). Structured Analysis and System Specification, New York, NY: Yourdon Press.
EisenhardtK. (1989). Building Theories from Case Study Research, Academy Management Review14(4): 532–550.
30.
EvansD.S., HagiuA., and SchmalenseeR. (2006). Invisible Engines: How software platforms drive innovation and transform industries, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
31.
FarajS., KwonD., and WattsS. (2004). Contested Artifact: Technology sensemaking, actor networks, and the shaping of the web browser, Information Technology & People17(2): 186–209.
32.
FichmanR. (2004). Real Options and IT Platform Adoption: Implications for theory and practice, Information Systems Research15(2): 132–154.
FunkJ.L. (2002). Global Competition Between and within Standards: The case of mobile phones, New York: Palgrave.
35.
GiddensA. (1984). The Constitution of Society, London: Polity Press.
36.
GreenhalghT., StramerK., BratanT., ByrneE., MohammadY., and RussellJ. (2008). Introduction of Shared Electronic Records: Multi-site case study using diffusion of innovation theory, British Medical Journal, (Clinical research edn)337: al786.
37.
GregorS. (2006). The Nature of Theory in Information Systems, MIS Quarterly30(3): 611–642.
38.
GrindleyP. (1995). Standards, Strategy, and Politics. Cases and Stories, New York: Oxford University Press.
39.
GrisotM. (2008). Foregrounding Differences: A performative approach to the coordination of distributed work and information infrastructures in use, Ph.D. Thesis, Departments of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway.
40.
HansethO. (2000). The Economics of Standards, in Ciborra (eds.), From Control to Drift. The Dynamics of Corporate Information Infrastructures, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 56–70.
41.
HansethO. (2001). Gateways – Just as important as standards. How the internet won the ‘religious war’ about standards in Scandinavia, Knowledge, Technology and Policy14(3): 71–89.
42.
HansethO., and AanestadM. (2003). Bootstrapping Networks, Infrastructures and Communities, Methods of Information in Medicine42: 384–391.
43.
HansethO., and CiborraC. (2007). Risk, Complexity and ICT, Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing.
44.
HansethO., and LundbergN. (2001). Information Infrastructure in Use – An empirical study at a radiology department, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). The Journal of Collaborative Computing10(3-4): 347–372.
45.
HansethO., and MonteiroE. (1997). Inscribing Behaviour in Information Infrastructure Standards, Accounting Management and Information Technology7(4): 183–211.
46.
HansethO., MonteiroE., and HatlingM. (1996). Developing Information Infrastructure: The tension between standardization and flexibility, Science, Technology and Human Values21(4): 407–426.
HovavA., and SchuffD. (2005). ‘The Changing Dynamic of the Internet’ Early and Late Adopters of Ipv6 Standard, Communications of the Association of the Information Systems15: 242–262.
49.
HughesT.P. (1987). The Evolution of Large Technical Systems, in BijkerW.E., HughesT.P., and PinchT. (eds.) The Social Construction of Technological Systems, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
50.
KahnR.E. (1994). The Role of Government in the Evolution of the Internet, Communications of the ACM37(8): 415–419, Special issue on Internet technology.
51.
KahnR.E. (2006). Personal interview on phone 6th December 2006.
52.
KallinikosJ. (2004). Deconstructing Information Packages: Organizational and behavioural implications of large scale information systems, Information Technology and People17(1): 8–30.
53.
KallinikosJ. (2006). Information out of Information: On the self-referential dynamics of information growth, Information Technology and People19(1): 98–115.
54.
KallinikosJ. (2007). Technology, Contingency and Risk: The vagaries of large-scale information systems, in HansethO., and CiborraC. (eds.) Risk, Complexity and ICT.Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 46–74.
55.
KayworthT., and SambamurthyS. (2000). Facilitating Localized Exploitation of Enterprise Wide Integration in the use of IT Infrastructures: The role of PC/LAN infrastructure standards, The Data Base for Advances in Information Systems31(4): 54–80.
56.
KlingR. (1992). Behind the Terminal: The critical role of computing infrastructure in effective information systems’ development and use, in CottermanW., and SennJ. (eds.) Challenges and Strategies for Research in Systems Development, London: John Wiley, pp. 153–201.
57.
KlingR., and ScacchiW. (1982). The Web of Computing: Computing technology as social organization, Advances in Computers, New York: Academic Press, Vol. 21, pp. 3–87.
58.
KozlowskiS., and KleinK. (2000). A Multi-Level Approach to Theory and Research in Organizations: Contextual, temporal and emergent processes, in KleinK., and KozlowskiS. (eds.) Multilevel Theory, Research and Methods in Organizations, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 3–90.
59.
LatourB. (1999). Pandora's Hope. Essays on the Reality of Science Studies, Cambridge, MA; London, UK: Harvard University Press.
60.
LeeC., DourishP., and MarkG. (2006). The Human Infrastructure of the Cyberinfrastructure, Proceedings of CSCW'06 (Banf, Canada); New York: ACM Press, 483–492.
61.
LeinerB.M., CerfV.C., ClarkD.D., KahnR.E., KleinrockL., LynchD.C., PostelJ., RobertsL.G., and WolffS.S. (1997). The Past and Future History of the Internet, Communications of the ACM40(2): 102–108.
62.
LessigL. (2001). The Future of Ideas: The fate of the commons in a connected world, New York: Random House.
63.
LindgrenR., HendfridssonO., and SchultzeU. (2004). Design Principles for Competence Management Systems: A synthesis of an action research study, MIS Quarterly28(3): 435–472.
64.
LyytinenK., and FominW. (2002). Achieving High Momentum in the Evolution of Wireless Infrastructures: The battle over the 1G solutions, Telecommunications Policy26: 149–190.
65.
MarchJ.G. (1991). Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning, Organization Science2(1): 71–78.
66.
MarkusM.L., MajchrzakA., and GasserL. (2002). A Design Theory for Systems That Support Emergent Knowledge Processes, MIS Quarterly26(3): 179–212.
67.
MarkusM.L., SteinfieldC.W., WigandR.T., and MintonG. (2006). Industry- Wide Information Systems Standardization as Collective Action: The case of the US residential mortgage industry, MIS Quarterly30(Special Issue on Standardization August 2006): 439–465.
68.
MasheyJ. (2009). The Long Road to 64 Bits, Communications of the ACM52(1): 45–53.
69.
MonteiroE. (1998). Scaling Information Infrastructure: The case of the next generation IP in internet, The Information Society14(3): 229–245.
70.
NickersonJ.V., and zur MuehlenM. (2006). The Ecology of Standards Processes: Insights from internet standard making, MIS Quarterly30(5): 467–488.
71.
OlleT.W., SolandH.G., and TullyC.J. (eds.) (1983). Information Systems Design Methodologies: A feature analysis, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Elsevier Science Publishers B.V.
72.
ParnasD.L. (1972). A Technique for Software Module Specification with Examples, Communications of the ACM15(5): 330–336.
73.
PipekV., and WulfV. (2009). Infrastructuring: Toward an integrated perspective on the design and use of information technology, Journal of the Association for Information Systems10(5): 447–473.
74.
PorraJ. (1999). Colonial Systems, Information Systems Research10(1): 38–69.
RFC (1995). The Recommendation for the IP Next Generation Protocol, RFC 1752, IAB and IESG [www document] http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1752.txt.
77.
RheingoldH. (1993). The Virtual Community: Homesteading the electronic frontier, Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
78.
RobeyD. (2003). Identity, Legitimacy, and the Dominant Research Paradigm: An alternative prescription for the IS discipline, Journal of the Association of for Information Systems4(6): 352–359.
79.
RoseM.T. (1992). The Future of OSI: A modest prediction, in NeufeldG., and PlattnerB. (eds.) Proceedings of the Usenix Conference 1992; Berkley USA: USENIX Association.
80.
RossD.T., and SchomanK.E.Jr. (1977). Structured Analysis for Requirements Definition, IEEE Transactions of Software Engineering SE3(1): 69–84.
81.
RussellA. (2006). Rough Consensus and Running Code’ and the Internet – OSI standards war, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing28(July-September): 48–61.
82.
SaltzerJ.H., ReedD.P., and ClarkD.D. (1984). End-to-End Arguments in Systems Design, ACM Transactions on Computer Systems2: 277–288.
83.
SauerC., and WillcocksL. (2007). Unreasonable Expectations – NHS IT, Greek choruses and the games institutions play around mega-programmes, Journal of Information Technology22: 195–201.
84.
ScacchiW. (2009). Understanding Requirements for Open Source Software, in LyytinenK., LoucopoulosP., MylopoulosJ., and RobinsonW. (eds.) Design Requirements Engineering: A ten-year perspective, LNBIP 14, Berling and Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, pp. 467–494.
85.
SchmidtS.K., and WerleR. (1998). Coordinating Technology. Studies in the International Standardization of Telecommunications, Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
86.
ScottR.W. (2001). Institutions and Organizations, London: Sage.
87.
ShapiroC., and VarianH.R. (1999). Information Rules: A strategic guide to the network economy, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
88.
SimonH. (1969). The Sciences of the Artificial, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
89.
StaceyR.D. (1996). Complexity and Creativity in Organisations, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
90.
StarL.S., and RuhlederK. (1996). Steps Toward an Ecology of Infrastructure: Design and access of large information spaces, Information Systems Research7(1): 111–134.
91.
StefferudE. (1994). Paradigms Lost, Connexions. The Interoperability Report8(1).
92.
SteinbergS.G. (1995). Addressing the Future of the Net, WIRED3(May): 141–144.
93.
TilsonD. (2008). Reconfiguring to Innovate: Innovation networks during the evolution of wireless services in the United States and the United Kingdom, Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Information Systems, Case Western Reserve University.
94.
TilsonD., and LyytinenK. (2006). The 3G Transition: Changes in the US wireless industry, Telecommunication Policy30: 569–586.
95.
TuomiI. (2002). Networks of Innovation. Change and Meaning in the Age of the Internet, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
96.
WagnerA. (2007). Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
97.
WallsJ.G., WidmeyerG.R., and El SawyO.A. (1992). Building an Information System Design Theory for Vigilant EIS, Information Systems Research3(1): 36–59.
98.
WallsJ.G., WidmeyerG.R., and El SawyO.A. (2004). Assessing Information System Design Theory in Perspective: How useful was our 1992 rendition?Journal of Information Technology Theory and application6(2): 43–58.
99.
WeickK.E. (1989). Theory Construction as Disciplined Imagination, Academy of Management Review14(4): 516–531.
100.
WeillP., and BroadbentM. (1998). Leveraging the New Infrastructure, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
101.
WigandR.T., Lynne MarkusM., SteinfieldC.W., and MintonG. (2006). Standards, Collective Action and IS Development – Vertical information systems standards in the US home mortgage industry, MIS Quarterly, Special Issue on Standards and Standardization30: 439–465.
102.
WilliamsR., and PollockN. (2008). Software and Organisations – The biography of the enterprise-wide system or how SAP conquered the world, London: Routledge.
103.
YooY., LyytinenK., and YangE. (2005). The Role of Standards in Innovation and Diffusion of Broadband Mobile Services: The case of South Korea, Journal of Strategic Information Systems14(2): 323–353.
104.
ZimmermanA. (2007). A Socio-Technical Framework for Cyberinffastructure Design, in Proceedings of e-Social Science Conference (Ann Arbor, Michigan, October).
105.
ZittrainJ. (2006). The Generative Internet, Harward Law Review119: 1974–2040.
