Cultivating a Culture of Participation for the Co-Evolution of Users and Systems

User diversity and co-evolution of users and systems are two important phenomena usually observed in the design and use of IT artifacts. In the last years, End-User Development (EUD) has been proposed to tap in these phenomena, by providing mechanisms that support people, who are not software professionals, to modify, adapt, and even create IT artifacts according to their specific and evolving needs. However, to motivate and sustain these people, a culture of participation is necessary, as well as proper meta-design activities that may promote and maintain it. This paper focuses on the theme of cultures of participation in EUD settings; to this aim, it presents four main roles, including that of maieutadesigner, as the “social counterpart” of the meta-designer. Then, it describes how the maieuta-designer is in charge of carrying out all those activities that are necessary to cultivate a culture of participation, by means of proper tools that are briefly introduced in the paper.