The power of the unaided, individual mind is highly overrated: The Renaissance scholar no longer exists. Although creative individuals are often thought of as working in isolation, the role of interaction and collaboration with other individuals is critical to creativity. Creative activity grows out of the relationship between individuals and their work, and from the interactions between an individual and other human beings. Because complex problems require more knowledge than any single person possesses, it is necessary that all involved stakeholders participate, communicate, collaborate, and learn from each other. Distances (across spatial, temporal, and technological dimensions) and diversity (bringing stakeholders together from different cultures) are important sources for social creativity. This paper describes conceptual frameworks and sociotechnical environments (derived from the systems that we have developed over the last decade) in which social creativity can come alive. Keywords design, social creativity, spatial distance, temporal distance, technological distance, diversity, communities of practice, communities of interest, division of labor

Abstract: This chapter describes different script types that are involved when a person X is accomplishing a particular task Y. We refer to concepts and ideas from distributed cognition theories. It is assumed that individuals are holding internal scripts that guide them in the way they process tasks they are faced with, and these internal scripts are standing in a complex relationship to the external scripts provided by an artifact or by other persons. Three factors are regarded as crucial in order to describe the accomplishment of a task, namely (a) the actual activity, (b) knowledge underlying the activity, and (c) the executive function, a (meta-)cognitive instance that is setting the goals for the task and controls the system’s task accomplishment. For each of these three main factors, several sub-categories are introduced, on which two script approaches are compared. The first approach represents the socio-technical environment Memory Aiding Prompting System (MAPS) designed to support individuals with cognitive disabilities in accomplishing everyday tasks with a focus on “tools for living”. The second approach, the so-called collaborative argumentation script, represents a computer-supported collaborative inquiry learning environment to facilitate students ’ collaborative argumentation with a focus on “tools for learning”. Implications of the comparison for the design of external scripts are derived and directions for future research are discussed. 1.

The history of the human race is one of increasing intellectual capability. Since the time of our early ancestors, our brains have gotten no bigger; nevertheless, there has been a steady accretion of new tools for intellectual work (including advanced visual interfaces) and an increasing distribution of complex activities among many minds. Despite this transcendence of human cognition beyond what is “inside ” a person’s head, most studies and frameworks on cognition have disregarded the social, physical, and artifactual surroundings in which cognition and human activity take place. Distributed intelligence provides an effective theoretical framework for understanding what humans can achieve and how artifacts and tools can be designed and evaluated to empower human beings and to change tasks. This paper presents and discusses the conceptual frameworks and systems that we have developed over the last decade to create effective socio-technical environments supporting distributed intelligence.

Abstract. Although widely used in software engineering, metaprogramming is often misunderstood. The researchers often disagree what concepts characterize metaprogramming. The concepts of metaprogramming are often used without acknowledging the usage of metaprogramming itself. We overview the examples and definitions of metaprogramming in computer science, identify, describe and discuss the fundamental concepts of metaprogramming (code generation, transformation, reflection, generalization, metaprogram, metadata, level of abstraction and separation of concerns). We analyze their relationship and present taxonomy, based on a study of sources on metaprogramming.

The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories, and we find that both the content and the form meet acceptable presentation standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline. HRC protocol # 1202.14,

In this position paper we consider the ways in which users can be given control over technology and information, considering the spectrum of design possibilities from ‘generative component’ solutions, to ‘appliance ’ solutions. We show how security concerns and the processes of user centered design tend to encourage a migration towards the appliance end of the spectrum and then describe problems that arise from this. We then suggest an alternative route towards allowing users more direct control over their information via end user programming, discuss some of the challenges in doing so and how they might be overcome and conclude with a suggestion of a practical first step that system designers might consider. Categories and Subject Descriptors

Abstract. Meta-design is an emerging conceptual framework aimed at defining and creating socio-technical environments as living entities. It extends existing design methodologies focused on the development of a system at design time by allowing users to become co-designers at use time. Meta-design is grounded in the basic assumption that future uses and problems cannot be completely anticipated at design time, when a system is developed. Users, at use time, will discover mismatches between their needs and the support that an existing system can provide for them. Meta-design extends boundaries by supporting users as active contributors who can transcend the functionality and content of existing systems. By facilitating these possibilities, control is distributed among all stakeholders in the design process. This paper characterizes different design methodologies and identifies the unique challenges and opportunities for meta-design. It illustrates this approach with two examples: (a) Web2Gether (enriching the organizational practices and community building of assistive technology teachers), and (b) the Memory Aiding Prompting System (MAPS) (addressing the needs of people with cognitive disabilities and their caregivers). Assessments of our developments are used to identify some future implications and challenges for meta-design and its role in socially responsible design.

LACAM In the Information Society, end-users keep increasing very fast in number, as well as in their demand with respect to the activities they would like to perform with computer environments, without being obliged to become computer specialists. There is a great request to provide endusers with powerful and flexible environments, tailorable to the culture, skills and needs of a very diverse end-user population. In this paper, we discuss a framework for End-User Development (EUD) and present our methodology for designing software environments that support the activities of a particular class of end-users, called domain-expert users, with the objective of making their work with the computer easier. Such environments are called Software Shaping Workshops, in analogy to artisan workshops: they provide users only with the necessary tools that allow them to accomplish their specific activities by properly shaping software artefacts without being lost in virtual space. RAPPORTO TECNICO LACAM 02.10.2005 11 ottobre 2005 1

ii Acknowledgements Yesterday I was telling myself: “I will never be able to find the time to write my acknowledgements! ” I was in one of those 2-b-doctor moods, you know: loneliness, very negative moods, and feeling such as ‘I will never make it! ’ Anyway all this just to say that I am finally there, even if it seemed to be impossible, unreachable and enormously hard! And if I am there it is thanks to many ‘special ’ people I was so lucky to meet on my way. I want to thank Professor Dino Borri, for giving me the space, the freedom and support to develop as a student and to become the researcher that I am now. It has always been very important for me to have his consideration, and I really hope he will appreciate this work. I am immensely grateful to Grazia Concilio, who has been a friend other than one of my supervisors. Many people say that we are very similar, that we have even the same voice and way to talk (!). Well, this doesn’t surprise me, because we have shared every single step and thought that is part of this work, every single day,

Abstract. Our research explores meta-design as an innovative framework in the design of an emerging type of software-intensive systems called participative software systems. The fundamental challenge facing this approach is achieving the best fit between the software system and its ever-changing context of use, problems, domains, users, and communities of users. Our objective is to define the scientific foundation for designing participative software systems: socio-technical environments that are capable of coping with emergent needs in the context of personally meaningful activities and that empower users, as owners of problems, to engage actively and collaboratively in continual development.