Social informatics of information value cocreation: A case study of xiaomi's online user community

AbstractThe perennial issue of information value creation needs to be understood in the contemporary era of a more networked user environment enabled by information technology (IT). This mixed‐methods study investigates information value cocreation from the social informatics perspective to surface sociotechnical implications for IT design and use, since cocreation is inherently social and technology‐mediated. Specifically, the cocreation of software as an information‐intensive product is examined. Data on the cocreation of Xiaomi's MIUI firmware were collected from two sources: 49 interviews of staff and user participants and web crawling of the cocreation platform. They were analyzed with interpretive analysis, topic modeling, and social network analysis for triangulation. Findings indicate three sociotechnical information practices co‐constituted by information, IT, people, and their activities. Each practice is instrumental in rapidly and continuously converting external information into cocreated information value. The adsorption information practice attracts new and diverse external information; the absorption practice integrates external and internal information rapidly by involving users; the desorption practice allows rapid adoption of the cocreated product so that information value can be realized and demonstrated for further cocreation. Critically analyzing these practices reveals unanticipated or paradoxical issues affecting the design and use of common cocreation technology such as discussion forums.