Five types of ownership
When we ask "who owns digital", we're often wrapping lots of different questions into one word. Pulling it apart should make it easier to work out which aspects have been assigned and which have just been assumed.
What I have observed in both my client work and the research I've conducted recently is that there is often quite a bit of confusion around 'ownership' when it comes to digital work.
And this confusion was a factor that came up in work looking at both digital failure and hidden digital labour.
I think when we ask questions like 'who is in charge digital' we are maybe asking five different things, or rather, we are wrapping up five different types of ownership into one word (and in turn creating a classic example of a 'suitcase word'). And without specific clarity in each of these areas we're setting ourselves up for lots of confusion and increasing the chance of failure.
So I thought it may be useful to detail the five things that I think we are actually talking about when we say 'ownership'.
The labels for each 'type' are a bit of a work in progress, as ever - thoughts are very much welcomed.