Workshop: 11. End-User Programming and Blended-User Programming

Monday 09:00 - 17:30.

Carol Traynor, St. Anselm College, USA
Howie Goodell, Micrion Corporation, USA

End-User Programming has not met expectations: today's computer world is dominated by "fatware" programs with hundreds of features, not simple applications built by the users themselves. Yet, a strange convergence is occurring between roles of programmers and end-users. Professional programmers become end users of complex IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) indistinguishable from tools for non-programmers. A new group we call "blended-user programmers" has appeared -- professional application experts without software degrees, e.g. web designers or GUI programmers. Major end-user applications support a continuum of programming tools; advanced users may move into these new software careers.

This workshop will re-evaluate insights of classical end-user programming to understand the converging programming world. Questions it may address:

• What are useful boundaries of "programming" in an environment of check-box customization?
• What are appropriate programming abilities for schoolchildren and adults to learn?
• What are commonalties/differences between new areas of blended-user programming and forms studied earlier?
• What technical and social interactions develop when "real" programmers with computer science degrees work with blended-user programmers?
• Do certificate courses primarily expand blended-user programmers' repertoire of tinkering, or make them more analytical?

Fifteen experts in end-user programming or with psychology and sociology of programming backgrounds will be selected based on position papers (2-4 pages). If appropriate, these may be published as a book to inform research and practice in this emerging area.

More information is on the workshop's web page.

Contact:
Carol Traynor
St. Anselm College
100 St. Anselm Drive
Manchester, NH 03102 USA
Tel: +1 603 656 6021
Email: ctraynor@anselm.edu