This research presents the case of setting up a computer-based information system in the SASS (Tunisia-Algeria-Libya) cross-border basin. This study is based on two theoretical perspectives: resilience and the movement of sociomateriality. It shows the way experts have succeeded in absorbing technological risks and in developing their resilience capacity by developing collective choice rules (E. Ostrom, 2007) within consultation meetings. The objectives of this article are twofold. First, it explores the possibilities of adapting the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework (Hess and Ostrom, 2007) to cooperation situations in which actors manage information via an electronic platform. Second, it identifies the role played by technology in the development of resilience capacities. We conducted a case study using a qualitative research methodology. The results show that the short-term functioning of these self-organizing communities fits within E. Ostrom’s conceptual framework for sharing information and knowledge. Organizational thinking integrates materiality which is not limited to what is in itself materially graspable; rather, it extends to the performativity of technology, i.e., to the rules and procedures that are born out of the interaction with the technological artifact. Materiality is present in the negotiation of rules within meetings to allow transboundary countries in case of an emergency to react, to tinker, to innovate, and thus to develop a level of organizational resilience which is essential to maintaining cooperation.
