ABSTRACT Transforming Viscous Data into Liquid Data: How Does Intermediating through Digital Platforms Impact Data? Jordana Jeanne George, Ph.D. Mentor: Dorothy E. Leidner, Ph.D. This study examines how a data platform intermediary enables the evolution of viscous data into liquid data. Viscous, or difficult to use, data is the result of data usage problems that often plague information systems. Data may be viscous because of poor quality, staleness, size issues, unusable formats, missing metadata, unknown history, mysterious provenance, poor access for users, and inability to move data between systems. Viscous data is problematic to use and difficult to incorporate into decision making. On the other hand, liquid data is high quality, formatted to be machine-readable, has provenance and metadata, is easy to move in and out of different systems, is accessible by users, and lends itself well to being used for decision making. Using a longitudinal case study that follows a data platform intermediary startup company from late 2015 to 2018, I break down elements of the platform into data users, data providers, and data intermediaries. Using a lens from the Community of Practice literature, I show how social learning, data wrangling, data complementing, and data liberalizing on a digital data platform transform data from viscous to liquid. This work contributes by providing a different perspective to data management, a means to address a dearth of data skills, and a way to make data more usable for both individuals and institutions. Transforming Viscous Data into Liquid Data: How Does Intermediating through Digital Platforms Impact Data by Jordana J. George, B.A., M.B.A., M.F.A. A Dissertation Approved by the Department of Information Systems Jonathan Trower, Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved by the Dissertation Committee Dorothy E. Leidner, Ph.D., Chairperson Jonathan Trower, Ph.D. Timothy Kayworth, Ph.D. Debra Burleson, Ph.D. Peter Klein, Ph.D. Accepted by the Graduate School August 2019 J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright © 2019 by Jordana Jeanne George All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................. vii LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................... ix DEDICATION ...................................................................................................................... x CHAPTER ONE ................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER TWO ................................................................................................................. 8 Foundations ....................................................................................................................... 8 Overview of the Literature ................................................................................. 8 Literature Review Method ................................................................................. 8 Data .................................................................................................................. 11 Data Systems .................................................................................................... 25 The Data Cycle ................................................................................................ 31 Sensitizing Device ............................................................................................ 53 CHAPTER THREE ............................................................................................................ 57 Method ............................................................................................................................. 57 Site Selection, Data Collection, and Description ............................................ 60 Analysis Methods ............................................................................................. 64 Setting: data.world ............................................................................................ 65 data.world Data Providers ............................................................................... 67 data.world Data Users ...................................................................................... 70 data.world Data Intermediaries ....................................................................... 72 CHAPTER FOUR .............................................................................................................. 74 Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 74 data.world Data Providers ............................................................................... 76 data.world Data Users ...................................................................................... 81 data.world Data Intermediaries ....................................................................... 83 CHAPTER SEVEN ............................................................................................................ 90 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 90 CHAPTER EIGHT ............................................................................................................ 94 Implications ...................................................................................................................... 94 Implications for Understanding Data Liquidity .............................................. 95 Implications for Working with Data ............................................................... 96 v Implications for Understanding People Who Work with Data ..................... 97 Implications for Open Government Data ....................................................... 98 Implications for Personal Data Use ................................................................ 99 Practical Implications ..................................................................................... 100 Future Research ............................................................................................. 101 CHAPTER NINE ............................................................................................................. 103 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 103 APPENDIX ....................................................................................................................... 106 Coding Details ................................................................................................................ 106 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................. 110 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. A Polylithic Framework of RTD Papers (from Leidner, 2018) ........................... 10 Figure 2. Literature Review Data Topics ............................................................................. 11 Figure 3. 5 Stars of Linked Open Data ................................................................................ 21 Figure 4. Amsterdam Museum Item Search ....................................................................... 23 Figure 5. Data Flows ............................................................................................................ 32 Figure 6. Data User Business Model Framework ............................................................... 40 Figure 7. data.world Developer Toolkit .............................................................................. 66 Figure 8. Platform Users, Utilization, Outcome .................................................................. 76 Figure 9. AP Data Project on Opioid Prescriptions ............................................................ 86 Figure 10. Liquid Data Process ............................................................................................ 91 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Viscous and Liquid Data ....................................................................................... 17 Table 2. Taxonomy of Data Providers ................................................................................ 36 Table 3. How Organizational Data Users Employ External Data ...................................... 40 Table 4. Data Users ............................................................................................................. 44 Table 5. Data Intermediaries ............................................................................................... 50 Table 6. Literature Resource Types .................................................................................... 59 Table 7. Data Sources .......................................................................................................... 62 Table 8. Primary Interviews & Meetings ............................................................................