Supporting End User Development in Community Computing: Requirements, Opportunities, and Challenges

Abstract

End user development (EUD) tools in community computing are not well-developed and typically do not take into consideration the unique characteristics of community groups such as lack of human, financial, and technological resources. Using a case study, we explore EUD in the domain of community computing. Situated in community computing context, we identify design requirements of EUD tools, demonstrate the use of conceptual scaffolds to support EUD, and illustrate the need of new evaluation methods of EUD tools. We discuss the tension between pushing EUD tools to community computing for local autonomy on technology issues and the long time practice of seeking and relying on external technical expertise. We call for research studies that address the tension and explore ways of creating and stimulating “pull” force from the community groups.