ABSTRACT
We were involved in a project aimed at the development of rural organizations in Northern Italy and led by a Growers’ Organizations Association (GOA, or Association of Growers’ Organizations, GO). This GOA was established in 2006 by local growers as a way to challenge the “monopoly” prices imposed by large retailers, especially within the progressively larger market of fresh-cut, ready-to-eat vegetable products. The paper reports on the outcomes of this project that aimed to study a network of farmers and promote the adoption of social computing technologies addressing their needs. This aim proved to be highly challenging since the network was heterogeneous, characterized by tiers of different nature and composed of competing/cooperating (coopetitive) actors. The paper illustrates the challenges we faced, the strategy we conceived that led to the introduction of a community-oriented ICT, and further steps to perform in this complex process of ICT adoption.
