The Digital Ecosystem Business Canvas
Connecting Capabilities, Stakeholders and Value
The Hourglass Model 2025 was proposed at the start of the CEI-Sphere project and used multiple times subsequently as a tool to communicate on the characteristics of an ICT ecosystems. The Hourglass Model 2027 extends the 2025 version by creating a template enabling its use as a business canvas.
The hourglass model is a conceptual framework that illustrates how different layers of digital capabilities and corresponding stakeholder groups interact to create intelligent, interoperable, and scalable digital ecosystems.
Named for its distinctive shape (wide at the top and bottom with a narrow central layer) this model is especially relevant for complex systems such as smart cities, mobility platforms, industrial automation, and digital twins.
It shows how data flows from the physical world (sensors and devices) through enabling platforms and infrastructure, and ultimately up to applications and user interfaces.
Each layer is structured to highlight a specific type of stakeholder, representing those responsible for building, enabling, or governing that part of the digital system. Opposite them are the key capabilities, the technological functions that make the system work.
Together, these dual aspects of the model help visualise the alignment between people, processes, and platforms.
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