Paper short abstract:

We explore the fragility of infrastructures, emphasizing governance’s role in maintaining cohesion. Using OpenEdition as a case study, we examine how practitioners engage with their landscape, through semantic analysis and interviews. We propose a framework likening infrastructures to ecosystems.

Paper long abstract:

Infrastructures, intricate assemblages of stakeholders and socio-technical components, inherently face fragility. Constantly challenged by centrifugal forces like hardware wear, information corruption, and unresolved controversies, governance norms and practices become crucial for maintaining their cohesion. Open digital knowledge infrastructures have reshaped traditional structures, introducing new elements such as digital publications, data, platforms, and open licenses. This evolution has led a variety of stakeholders, such as infrastructure practitioners, researchers, as well as managers, to use the term “ecosystem” to describe this new configuration, encompassing infrastructures, communities, and their surroundings.

Examining the French public open infrastructure OpenEdition, we illustrate how practitioners perceive and engage with their ecosystem. Utilizing a semantic analysis of OE’s internal documentation, a survey, and interviews, we explore the practical application of an ecological framework, focusing on vocabulary use. The objective is to discern whether and why this framework is employed, ranging from defining new infrastructural dynamics to coordinating diverse stakeholders or merely as window-dressing of age-old objects.

This empirical study aims to contribute to a theory of the governance of open digital knowledge infrastructures. Drawing inspiration from Simondon’s mecanology and conceptualizing infrastructures surrounded by an associated milieu, we can conceive of governance as organizing these elements into an assemblage. The term "ecosystem" is defined as the global scale where singular infrastructures dynamically interact through their milieux – akin to a non-governed meta-milieu.This theoretical framework sets the stage for realizing Star and Ruhleder’s "ecology of infrastructures," providing insights into how governance norms and practices shape open digital knowledge infrastructures.