Week 2 - Article Digital Infrastructure (Tilson & Lyytinen)

Question 1

What are the main thoughts of the article?

Answer 1

• OS is a kind of infrastructure.
• An OS is there for a long time, it is relatively stable and used by many useres
• Distinction between OS and applications is too simple

Question 2

Why is the distinction between OS and applications too simple?

Answer 2

• Many applications have an infrastructure property

- Often this leads to applications running on top of other applications (think Facebook and Farmville)

Question 3

What is the paradox of change and control?

Answer 3

What makes an OS stable?

• Closed system: stable as applications need to adapt to you –> but is that sustainable in the long term?
• Open system: flexible, easier to change and evolve. Might be less stable though

-> similar with control.