An Ontological Analysis of Digital Technology

Abstract

In a growing number of industries, digitalization enables new value co-creation, leading to innovative changes in the economy and society. Digitalization arises from the Information Technology domain, blending and encapsulating digital technologies’ transformational effects. Digital technologies are fundamental components for organizations to transform digitally; therefore, what is digital technology? It is a type of technology involving one or more digital objects whose components include one or more bitstrings. The Theory of Digital Objects proposes to capture digital objects’ ontological complexity and understand how their identity and usage are bound up with a “dual nature” constituting physical form and social function. This paper presents an ontological analysis of this theory, grounded on the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO), using OntoUML to identify the core components to answer what digital technology is. The analysis adds ontological clarity to the Theory of Digital Objects.