Access to and use of information systems comprises the interaction of people and systems. A large number and range of problems are involved in performing the tasks of information management and services. The user's expertise needed to accomplish these tasks can be seen as a multi-dimensional knowledge space including among others subject expertise, system expertise, and language skills -each aspect most likely to require knowledge about a different cultural setting. Insufficient expertise in one or more dimensions leads to unsatisfactory results. For each task problem there are two approaches to improve the balance of expertise to complexity: increasing the user's expertise through education or advice; and reducing the user's need for expertise by simplifying the system, delegating the tasks to intermediaries, or to the system itself. The suggested solutions and the respective courses of action identify a framework applicable for the need and the circumstances of different users, subjects, systems, cultural settings, and new developments and lead to a better understanding of information systems. This framework allows to provide solutions where an intellectual transfer is not directly possible, e.g. in a different social or cultural environment.
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