What Are the Roles of Information, Participation and Cooperation Overload in End-User Development Support?

This paper discusses the concept of information, participation and collaboration overload in relation to end-user development support. The concept of information, participation and collaboration overload are very interesting and relevant points of view for analysing support in the context of end-user development. The end-user developer, working in an unfamiliar domain, is very likely to suffer from information overload. Solving this overload problem by contacting other people can lead to collaboration and participation overload issues. The initial lens used is a knowledge transfer and socio-technical viewpoint. An existing collaborative environment, a virtual community in the form of an on-line support forum is used as an example case. How the various overload issues are potentially interacting in this setting can give ideas for understanding the concept of cultures of participation and guide future research and practice.