Rethinking Openness in Data Platforms: The Impact of Data Artifact Characteristics on Platform Openness

Data platforms enable actors to exchange personal and business data. While data is relevant for any digital platform, data platforms exclusively revolve around data artifacts. This paper argues that the specific characteristics of data artifacts challenge the authors’ understanding of platform openness. Specifically, it is argued that data artifacts are editable, interactive and distributable, which means that the consequences of opening up a data platform extend far beyond the focal platform and its context. From this, the study infers that the scope of platform openness extends beyond the data platform on which data artifacts originate. At the same time, the very nature of data artifacts afford new mechanisms to realize and reduce the risks of openness. New avenues are suggested to study platform openness in the realm of data platforms. These avenues include (1) exploring and incorporating novel consequences of platform openness in a data platform setting, (2) examining new arenas for defining openness beyond a focal platform’s confines, and (3) theorizing the implications of new mechanisms for realizing openness while maintaining apparent control over data artifacts.