Much of the literature on value creation in social media-based infrastructures has largely neglected the pivotal role of data and their processes. This paper tries to move beyond this limitation and discusses data-based value creation in data-intensive infrastructures, such as social media, by focusing on processes of data generation, use and reuse, and on infrastructure development activities. Building on current debates in value theory, the paper develops a multidimensional value framework to interrogate the data collected in an embedded ethnographical case study of the development of PatientsLikeMe, a social media network for patients. It asks when, and where, value is created from the data, and what kinds of value are created from them, as they move through the data infrastructure; and how infrastructure evolution relates to, and shapes, existing data-based value creation practices. The findings show that infrastructure development can have unpredictable consequences for data-based value creation, shaping shared practices in complex ways and through a web of interdependent situations. The paper argues for an understanding of infrastructural innovation that accounts for the situational interdependencies of data use and reuse. Uniquely positioned, the paper demonstrates the importance of research that looks critically into processes of data use in infrastructures to keep abreast of the social consequences of developments in big data and data analytics aimed at exploiting all kinds of digital traces for multiple purposes.

有关基于社交媒体的基础架构中的价值创造的许多文献在很大程度上忽略了数据及其过程的关键作用。本文试图超越这一限制，并通过关注数据生成，使用和重用的过程以及基础设施开发活动，来讨论诸如社交媒体之类的数据密集型基础设施中基于数据的价值创造。在当前关于价值理论的争论的基础上，本文开发了多维价值框架，以询问在有关PatientsLikeMe发展的嵌入式人种学案例研究中收集的数据，一个面向患者的社交媒体网络。它询问何时，何地从数据中创建价值，以及随着数据在数据基础架构中移动而从中创建哪些类型的价值；以及基础架构的演变与现有的基于数据的价值创造实践之间的关系和影响。研究结果表明，基础架构开发可能对基于数据的价值创造，以复杂的方式并通过相互依存的情况形成共享实践产生不可预测的后果。本文提出了对基础设施创新的理解，该基础解释了数据使用和重用的情景相互依存关系。位置独特，