Multiple interests or unified voice? JE Ferguson and M Soekijad 4 Journal of Information Technology (2016) 31, 250–253 ª 2016 Association for Information Technology Trust All rights reserved 0268-3962/16 www.palgrave.com/journals Research Article Multiple interests or unified voice? Online communities as intermediary spaces for development Julie E Ferguson 1 , Maura Soekijad 2 1 Department of Organization Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 2 Department of Information, Logistics and Innovation, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Correspondence: JE Ferguson, Department of Organization Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Abstract While the uptake of online communities toward development purposes continues to grow, many are characterized by an unresolved tension. On the one hand, they benefit from participation of heterogeneous stakeholders in their efforts to strengthen their expertise. On the other hand, these stakeholders represent highly diverging interests, which makes collective strategic action very challenging. To understand how online communities cope with this tension, we conducted a longitudinal, mixed method case study of an online community focused on development transportation. We argue that online communities are uniquely equipped, through their fluidity and open-endedness, to enable knowledge creation and agenda-setting. In so doing, online communities afford an ‘intermediary space’ that simultaneously accommodates both convergence and divergence of interests. Our study strengthens the bridge between information systems research and development studies, by highlighting the potential of ICT uptake toward ‘remaking participation’ in development debate, while including the perspectives of heterogeneous interest groups. Keywords: online communities; development; intermediary spaces; interests; ICT4D; strategic framing Introduction F or many professionals in the field of development coop- eration, an ongoing challenge is how to comprehend distinct, context-specific development problems, and integrating these in more relevant practice and policy agendas. This challenge is confounded by on the one hand, the complexity of development problems, which calls for close collaboration between dispersed and heterogeneous develop- ment stakeholders, ranging from local practitioners to inter- national donors (Rossi, 2004; McFarlane, 2006; Watkins et al., 2012). On the other hand, these stakeholders often represent unequal, contested, and widely diverging interests (Puri, 2007; Cornwall, 2008). Understanding how development efforts can be better aligned, while simultaneously ensuring that the voices of particular interest groups are represented in devel- opment agenda-setting, is therefore of key significance toward realizing more effective development cooperation (Escobar, 2011; Contu and Girei, 2014). An important, yet under-recognized development domain in which such questions are manifested, is development transportation and infrastructure. For instance, without access to transportation or adequate infrastructure, farmers cannot bring their products to markets, women experiencing child- birth problems cannot access healthcare, and children cannot reach their schools. Indeed, without forms of transportation or appropriate infrastructure, many key development goals 1 such as poverty reduction, reducing maternal mortality, and increasing access to education cannot be realized. Thus, while transportation underlies every development theme, in and of itself it often remains implicit (Njoh, 2008; Mitiku, 2009). The case underlying this paper shows how a heterogeneous group of development professionals struggled in their attempt to agendize equitable access to transportation as a development priority, joining forces across organizational and geographical boundaries by way of an online community. Journal of Information Technology (2016) 31, 358–381.doi:10.1057/jit.2015.25; advance online publication, 15 December 2015 358–381