Kibae Kim

The structural evolution of the Web 2.0 service network

Purpose- The purpose of this research is to analyze empirically the structure of the Web2.0 service network and the mechanism behind its evolution over time. Design/Methodology/Approach - Based on the list of Web2.0 services and their Mashups that is announced on www.programmableweb.com, a network of Web2.0 services was constructed. Within this network, a node represents a Web2.0 service with an open API, and a link between two nodes represents the existence of a Mashup service that uses the two nodes.Findings - Our findings suggest that the evolution of the Web2.0 service network follows the preferential attachment rule, although the exponent of the preferential attachment is lower than for other networks following a preferential attachment rule. Additionally, our results indicate that the Web2.0 service network evolves to a scalefree network, but the exponent of the power law distribution is lower than for other networks as well. Originality/ value - The research applied social network analysis to the Web2.0 service network. It showed that its network structure and the evolution mechanism are different from those found in similar areas, e.g. the WWW. The findings imply that there are factors which lower the exponent of the preferential attachment equation and the power law distribution of the degree centralities. Research limitation/implications - However, we did not investigate the factors responsible for the low values of the exponent of the preferential attachment equation and the exponent of the power law distribution. However, we discussed that it could be correlated with the fact that the interconnection between nodes depends on the property of the nodes.

Measuring and Analyzing the Openness of the Web2.0 Service Network for Improving the Innovation Capacity of the Web2.0 System through Collective Intelligence

Web2.0 users can create new services by combining existing Web2.0 services that offer open programming interfaces. This system of service composition forms a network, which we call the Web2.0 service network. A node of the Web2.0 service network represents a service. A link between two nodes exists, if another Web2.0 service (i.e. mashup) uses the linked services. The Web2.0 service network can be understood as an innovation system that creates value through the composition of services, representing the collective intelligence of users. Within this paper, we analyze the openness of the Web2.0 service network. Openness, which is an indicator for the innovation potential ofa network, is measured using the Enhanced-EIS-Indexes. These indexes are based on Krackhardt and Sterni¯s EI-Index. The analysis results of the indexes show that the Web2.0 service network is not as open as the evolutionary analysis of the Web2.0 service network suggested. The slight closeness of the Web2.0 service network has been identified by the Agent Behavior Index EISa, which highlighted that relatively more links are created within subgroups than between subgroups. It indicates that factors such as service ownership and type of service have an impact on innovation within the network.

Role of Platform Providers in Service Networks: The Case of Salesforce.com App Exchange

As IT technology advanced, a new style of innovation emerged, in which a leading innovation company invites end-users to its open software service platform. With respect to this type of innovation, a lot of innovation studies were performed to understand the structure of the interaction among users and the platform provider from the perspective of network science. By concentrating only on the internal mechanisms among agents, the previous studies miss to consider innovation through collective intelligence. A platform provider plays an important role in the innovation. In this research, we investigate the structure of a service network with empirical data gathered from Salesforce.com App Exchange and discuss the role of a platform provider in innovation through collective intelligence. Our results suggest that the platform provider led the innovation in the initial period and, then, third party developers became gradually innovation leaders. Our findings are expected to re-orient the research focus from internal mechanisms to the role of platform providers.

The Impact of the Subgroup Structure on the Evolution of Networks: An Economic Model of Network Evolution

One of the most important properties of self- organized networks is their scale-free property. Prior research proved empirically and theoretically that scale-free networks emerge under the preferential attachment rule. However, a few empirical studies also show that empirical networks diverge from the structure of scale-free networks. Empirical networks exhibit a lower exponent of the power law distribution than constructed scale-free networks. Our research aims at establishing a simple evolutionary network model that explains this difference. The results of our model suggest that there are two reasons for this discrepancy. First, as already known, additional links between existing nodes distort the scale-free feature. Second, boundaries between subgroups (groups of network nodes) distort the degree distribution. In general, we believe that our evolutionary model may be applicable not only to describe the structural evolution of networks but also to make network design recommendations in a variety of areas such as WWW-hyperlink networks, business collaboration networks, Peer-To-Peer Networks, and Web2.0 service networks.

Evolution of the Software-as-a-Service Innovation System Through Collective Intelligence

One of the notable trends in the software industry is that software vendors provide their software on a platform as a service. Software users consume those software services or compose new services by combining those existing software services. The software vendors, their services, software users, and the platform represent an open innovation system. Collective intelligence is the underlying mechanism for the cooperation between the users of the system, i.e. their continuous reuse of existing software services for the creation of new services. A successfully working software services system is a system that is continuously adapted by its users to meet their needs. The evolution of this software-as-a-service (SaaS) innovation system and the behavior of SaaS users within this system are still unknown. In this paper, we describe the evolution of a SaaS network. The SaaS network consists of nodes (i.e. software services with open interfaces) and links (i.e. the co-development relationships of software services with open interfaces). The results suggest that the SaaS network has gradually grown into a scale-free network with a slight concavity in its cumulative degree distribution. The results also suggest that the topology characteristics are invariant over time except for the early time periods. Furthermore, the results suggest that the SaaS network is not as open (i.e. inter-operable) as its technology let us expect. Considering these results, we imply that SaaS innovation is achieved by platform providers striving to capture users with a few, leading SaaS services. That means, SaaS innovation is not achieved through the possibilities of potential combinations between any kind of SaaS services as could be expected theoretically. These findings are expected to stir further research on the actual structure of open innovation systems that are driven by collective intelligence.

Cloud Goliath Versus a Federation of Cloud Davids

Cloud computing, which can be described as a technology for provisioning computing infrastructure as a service, runtime platform as a service, and software as a service, is considered as a keystone for innovation in the IT area. However, a limiting factor to innovation through cloud computing could be the economies of scale and network externalities that give more benefits to larger cloud providers. Due to the economies of scale and network externalities in an oligopolistic environment, a giant cloud provider can offer resources at lower cost than smaller providers. To overcome the disadvantage of small clouds, some research proposes architectures, in which small clouds can federate through common virtual interfaces. Therefore, academy and industry ask whether the federation of small cloud providers is economically feasible and can compete with a giant cloud provider. However, it is hard to solve those problems because the specifications of a cloud federation and the conditions of cloud market are unclear. To fill this gap, in this paper, we survey the conceptual background of cloud computing and the federation of small cloud providers. The results of this paper are expected to guide how to define the economic problems on cloud federation and provide constraints to the problems.

Evolution of the Global Knowledge Network: Network Analysis of Information and Communication Technologies’ Patents

In recent studies, Information and Communication Technologies have been key drivers of innovation and economic growth throughout the world. Because the Information and Communication Technology products and services require intensive knowledge, leading countries invested in their innovation systems to operate more effectively and efficiently. Studies on innovation have investigated the knowledge base of countries and their respective relationships with their national institutions, and subsequent economic growth to identify factors which have led to success. However, the approaches of previous studies omit the constituents of the knowledge base while focusing on quantitative aspects such as size. In this article, I propose a novel approach to exploring the knowledge base at a global level by undertaking a network analysis of patents. In this framework, the global knowledge network is defined as a set of countries and respective technological similarities between countries as vertices and edges. Applying this framework, the research questions are addressed qualitatively by identifying the structure of the network and how it has evolved. The analysis results indicate that the global knowledge network consists of a cluster of developed countries, and the cluster is linked with developing countries through Japan, U.S.A. and China. They also show that the Information and Communication Technology leaders changed from Great Britain and France to U.S.A. in 1920s, from U.S.A. to Japan in 1970s. The framework is expected to be applied to economic studies of innovation and knowledge bases at a global level.