Toward a Cognitive-Semiotic View on Digital Data

Information systems literature ontologically accounts for digital data as being not solely an economic resource but also a medium of signification. This study makes the case that cognitive-semiotic considerations increasingly come to the fore by dwarfing material economic marginal-cost considerations forwarded by the object paradigm. While the object paradigm in information systems has theorized digital artifacts as objects to account for their durable, relatively stable, and structured character, I claim that a cognitive-semiotic view is needed to account for a more balanced ontological view on digital data. Semiotic data signs convey information and meaning which can quickly change and be fluid. Building upon Peirce’s semiotics, I apply his triadic view to digital objects and data objects by distinguishing a semiotic part which unfolds semiosis. The study advances the ontological understanding of digital data as medium of signification, undergoing rapidly changing semiosis, and cognitively depending on the observer’s view and context. This approach also allows for a renewed way of looking at data value.