The rapid rise of digital technologies forces us to re-think our current
conceptualization of Information Technologies (IT) where recent theoretical
approaches like complexity, evolutionary and network theories tend to
remain silent on human (managerial and organizational) choices underlying
the development of digital technologies. In this Research-in-Progress
paper, we first describe the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT)
framework, originating in the 1980s. We then propose extending the SCOT
framework along four dimensions in order to ensure its suitability for the
digital world: (1) Technology – focus towards digital technologies, (2)
Interaction – focus on interpersonal, person-technology, technologytechnology
and technology-physical environment interactions (3) Social
Groups – focus on networked individualism, and (4) Context – focus on
socio-digital context. We conclude by proposing to co-develop and -test the
extended framework as a joint effort across several academic disciplines in
order to use it when conducting research on the social construction of
digital ecosystems.