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Information Systems for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises pp 353–373Cite as

Forums and Blogs and Wikis, Oh My!—An Analysis of On-Line Sources of Support for End-User Development

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Part of the book series: Progress in IS ((PROIS))

Abstract

Many small and medium-sized enterprises still seem to rely on very basic information systems, often including self-developed applications based on office suits, such as spreadsheet and database programs. However, this end-user development activity is often supported modestly, if at all, in organisations. Using on-line sources would be one way to alleviate these issues, but which source would or should developers pick to use? This paper presents and argues a framework of four key factors: context, cooperation, interactivity, and immediacy that, it is argued, influence end-user developers’ ability to obtain/use development support. These four factors which were derived from an extensive literature review are used to analyse and compare the effectiveness of several existing support sources (mainly focusing on the on-line versions) for end-user developers: personal contacts; help desks; trial and error; several different knowledge repositories; virtual communities and Internet searches. Based on this analysis, tempered with the perceived needs of (mainly novice) developers from real life situations, the paper concludes that virtual communities is the most suitable support source (in the sense that it fulfils needs that developers may or may not be ware of), especially for this category of end-user developers.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/index_en.htm

  2. 2.

    Available at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726434(v=office.12)

  3. 3.

    Available at: http://support.microsoft.com/

  4. 4.

    Available at: http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/ChartIndex.html

  5. 5.

    Available at: http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/forum.php

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Technologies, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

    Henri Korvela

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  1. Henri Korvela
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Correspondence to Henri Korvela .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. ELIT - Lab, Ghent University University College West-Flanders, Kortrijk, Belgium

    Jan Devos

  2. Industrial Management, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium

    Hendrik van Landeghem

  3. Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Ghent University Faculty of Economics and Business Admin., Ghent, Belgium

    Dirk Deschoolmeester

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Korvela, H. (2014). Forums and Blogs and Wikis, Oh My!—An Analysis of On-Line Sources of Support for End-User Development. In: Devos, J., van Landeghem, H., Deschoolmeester, D. (eds) Information Systems for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. Progress in IS. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38244-4_18

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