Co-creating an Online Governance Platform: A Call for Cross-organization Openness in Zambia

The open mode of thinking, acting and being has been associated with liberating, participatory and collaborative arrangements that have prompted us to redefine how research, science, innovation and citizenship are to be conceived. In an era where much is said about the ‘open society’, looking at the interplays between involvement, technology and social good becomes of particular importance and interest. Having employed an action research approach, we examine how technology partakes in enacting openness at the local governance level in a town in Zambia. Our specific interest is in how participants negotiate openness and how these negotiations are transforming when an online platform is introduced as a malleable object in the hands of all stakeholders. The paper concludes by showing how participants have collaboratively co-created an online space where vertical, horizontal and diagonal communication has been genuinely desired, that is, where all possible interactions between government, NGOs, citizens, priv...