CAN END-USERS PROGRAM?

In recent years, personal computing has changed direction and is now more inclined towards the world of mobile computing. This means that end-users expect a simpler and more personalized experience. To achieve the highest level of customization, end-users must develop their own applications. However, end-users usually lack in having the right skills for that task. To address this problem, many end-users programming languages and frameworks have been devised. These are particularly aimed at reducing syntax and cognitive gaps. However, some of the existing solutions reduced the expressiveness of the language and thus reduced the generality of the program, while others remains too complex for end-users. In this work we devise a new framework, named Dev4Me, designed from the ground up to provide end-users a solution for developing mobile and personal apps. The framework is made up of a new form-based language, an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and an execution environment. The new framework enables the users to develop, test, debug and use their own apps in a few simple steps, using familiar form filling experience

End-User Development na Participação Eletrônica

Neste relatório descrevemos um mapeamento sistemático de literatura, com o objetivo principal de encontramos propostas que associem conceitos de desenvolvimento pelo usuário (end-user development) à possibilidade de usuários comuns, sem conhecimento em programação, criarem seus próprios softwares e/ou aplicativos computacionais no desenvolvimento de soluções tecnológicas que apoiem a participação de cidadãos em assuntos de interesse público. Do resultado do mapeamento sistemático, nenhum trabalho demonstrou-nos atender especificamente ao objetivo principal. Do resultado da busca, aproveitamos o relato de uma pesquisa sobre a aplicação do end-user development, mais especificamente do meta-design, em um órgão governamental. A proposta permitiu que funcionários públicos, sem conhecimento em programação, criassem as próprias aplicações computacionais para apoiarem suas atividades profissionais. Por fim refletimos se a adoção do meta-design poderia ser útil aos cidadãos comuns para criarem seus próprios aplicativos computacionais que apoiem sua participação democrática

End-User Development of e-Government Services through Meta-modeling

This paper describes an approach to the end-user development of online services for citizens of a government agency. With reference to a typical government-to-citizen service, the paper discusses how such services are currently structured and provided to citizens, and how their implementation can be transferred from software professionals to administrative personnel, who do not generally possess any programming expertise. The analysis of e-government services is carried out according to different perspectives pertaining to the citizen, the employee, the software engineer and the human-computer interaction expert. This analysis leads to define an abstract service model (a meta-model) and constitutes the first phase of the end-user development approach here proposed. The meta-model can then be used to design an environment for service creation suitable to the competencies and background of the target end-user developers. This design activity constitutes the second phase of the proposed approach