Creative and Open Software Engineering Practices and Tools in Community Projects

• Presenters
• Konstantinos Chorianopoulos, Ionian University, Corfu, Greece
• Letizia Jaccheri, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
• Alexander Salveson Nossum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

Format: full day

Tutorial Objective: We explore software engineering practices and tools that are inspired by a growing number of amateur creators and artists. The introduction of rapid prototyping tools, such as Processing, Arduino, and fabrication-labs has motivated a broader participation of non-technical users in the engineering of interactive systems. Maker communities meet regularly and share knowledge for various purposes (e.g., creative hacking, social networking, lifelong learning). In the context of maker communities, the understanding of engineering interactive systems (e.g., objectives, collaboration, process, reports) and the design of the respective tools (e.g., end-user programming for artists, or children) are not well documented. As a remedy, we present a coherent overview of related work, as well as our own experiences in the organization and running of maker workshops. The tutorial format (lecture and hands-on workshop) benefits both practitioners and researchers with an understanding of creative software tools and practices. Moreover, participants become familiar with the organization of maker workshops as 1) a research method for understanding users, 2) an engineering process for interactive computer systems, and 3) a practice for teaching and learning.

Schedule: