The catchphrase ‘digital ecosystems’ is used to emphasise the value of digital assets and to show how digital asset production is evolving on the web. In turn, the production of digital assets contributes to the development of digital ecosystems. Digital ecosystem debates are therefore focused on ensuring the productive future of the web. Apart from digital assets and digital asset production, the concept also embraces other related concepts such as Big Data, digital media, social media, cloud computing and crowd sourcing. Each one of these concepts is used to describe various web-based applications that have been (and still are being) developed to empower individuals and support cooperation. Big Data is central to each application.
In Digital Asset Ecosystems: Rethinking Crowds and Clouds, Tobias Blanke analyses, discusses and positions each of these concepts within emerging digital networks. At the outset Blanke shows that data can only become big if the same action is repeated over and over. He uses Facebook as an example of a digital public space where people can experience Big Data and contribute to the generation of Big Data. Blanke believes that, irrespective of whether people consider themselves as masters of their own data universe or as being enclosed in an online-gated community, they all experience how Big Data and social media are reorganising the web. The focus of this book is therefore to acquire an understanding of the role digital assets and digital media have in this evolution of the online environment.
Big Data and social media are linked. Big Data is about extracting value from content, whereas social media is about realising social value online. Furthermore, Big Data and social media are part of the development whereby the web is being separated into larger digital ecosystems, which in turn are central to the development of open digital spaces on the web.
Two forces supported the maturation of digital ecosystems on the web. The first is cloud computing; the concept ‘cloud’ describes the web as a digital platform for applications and content. The second force is crowds; ‘crowds’ in this sense are digital ecosystems where groups of people collaborate in common tasks. Social media (for example Facebook) provide the mechanism for such collaboration.
Although clouds and crowds can be described as two different forces, their work is complementary. In this book Blanke investigates how they are employed together as two sides of the same coin. In order to do this he shows how crowds and clouds inhabit the digital ecosystem to deliver digital assets into consumption. He also describes how a digital economy develops and how this development transforms the role of digital assets, making digital assets core activities within a digital ecosystem. He uses cases studies from industry to illustrate this process and to show how generic requirements are met.
The aim of Digital Asset Ecosystems is to reposition digital assets and media in the global workflows and divisions of labour through an understanding of emerging digital asset practices and digital ecosystems. This book is a must read for all interested in how digital media and digital ecosystems have transformed the web and fostered collaboration as well as the development of digital communities.
