Organizations today are adopting business intelligence (BI) systems at a fast pace with the expectation that these systems will help them make better business decisions and improve their performance. But with the ever changing industry dynamics and variable business needs of end-users, the BI requirements of organizations are also getting unpredictable and increasingly harder to deliver by the service providers. Additionally, the advancement of web 2.0 & enterprise 2.0 technologies has opened up more possibilities for the development of user-centric innovative business applications. Enterprise BI Mashups are a specific breed of such technologies that have the potential to empower end-users with self-service capabilities and facilitate problem-solving in ad-hoc situational BI scenarios. This research project attempts to explore the current landscape of Business Intelligence (BI) Mashups and to identify gaps in technology with respect to user requirements and corporate objectives. Through an empirical investigation of BI mashups use cases, specific issues and challenges associated with the use of mashups in BI have been ascertained. Working in collaboration with IBM Cognos, we have formulated a taxonomy and utility framework for Enterprise BI Mashups. The formulated taxonomy provides a basic framework for understanding the domain of BI mashups and is aimed to aid application development initiatives for creating BI mashups toolkits. The utility framework draws upon real-world use cases for BI Mashups as well as pertinent software design patterns that can facilitate the development of BI mashup tools and services. These frameworks are expected to advance an understanding of business process requirements that can be satisfied through the use of Enterprise BI Mashups, and also aid in the development of mashup toolkits targeted at BI end-users.

[pt] A tese apresenta uma pesquisa inserida na área de End-User Development (EUD). As primeiras iniciativas nesta área surgiram como uma tentativa de auxiliar os usuários finais a atingirem objetivos específicos de personalização e customização de interfaces e sistemas, prioritariamente para benefício próprio. Conforme as necessidades evoluem, os usuários finais precisam conhecer e muitas vezes dominar conceitos e práticas mais complexos de computação. Neste contexto, têm surgido várias iniciativas para incentivar, ensinar e apoiar estes usuários a programarem e a pensarem computacionalmente. Geralmente, muita ênfase é dada para a questão da resolução de problemas, raciocínio lógico e outras habilidades comuns a cientistas da computação. Entretanto, apoiados na Engenharia Semiótica, uma teoria de base semiótica que descreve a interação humano-computador como uma comunicação entre designers e usuários, consideramos que sistemas computacionais interativos são artefatos comunicacionais: quem cria o sistema transmite mensagens, com características particulares, a quem os utiliza. Nesta tese, apresentamos um estudo em profundidade em que usuários finais, atuando como designers, criaram artefatos computacionais para fins de comunicação. A pesquisa mostrou que os participantes tomaram a programação e outras atividades de desenvolvimento não como fins em si, mas como meios para construírem suas mensagens. Discutimos como a mudança de perspectiva (de resolução de problemas para comunicação) revela fenômenos ainda pouco explorados como a autoexpressão dos designers nestes artefatos e a pragmática da linguagem de interação por eles construída. Outra contribuição da tese é uma extensão da Engenharia Semiótica, batizada de EUME – End-User Semiotic Engineering, uma forma de ver a Engenharia Semiótica na perspectiva do usuário final que atua como designer. / [en] This thesis presents research in the area the area of End-User Development (EUD). The first studies in EUD have emerged as an attempt to help end users achieve specific goals of personalization and customization of interfaces and systems, primarily for their own benefit. As needs evolve, end users have to know and often master more complex computing concepts and practices. In this context, there have been a growing number of initiatives to encourage, teach and support users in programming and thinking computationally. In general, much emphasis is given to problem solving, logical reasoning and other common computer scientists skills. However, supported by Semiotic Engineering, a semiotics-based theory that describes human-computer interaction as communication between designers and users, we believe that interactive computer systems are communication artifacts: that the person who creates the system sends various messages, with particular characteristics to the person who uses it. In this thesis, we present an extensive study in which end users, acting as designers, create computational artifacts for communication purposes. Research has shown that the participants took programming and other development activities not as end in themselves but as a means to build their messages. We discuss how the change in perspective (from problem-solving to communication) reveals a range of underexplored phenomena, such as self-expression of the designers and the pragmatics of interaction languages they build. Another contribution of this thesis is an extension to Semiotic Engineering, named EUME – End-User Semiotic Engineering, a new way to look at Semiotic Engineering, in the perspective of end users acting as designers.

Digital services and devices are today more spread than ever, forming a basis for new innovations, even among ordinary people. And yet, producers of such services and devices are mostly men with programming skills. Women's participation in development and design of digital products is thus not yet as influential as that of men. An approach to this situation is to offer web-based environments for end-user development where people with no programming experiences have the opportunity to develop their own smartphone applications. The SATIN project, a collaboration between universities and IT-companies, has taken such an approach, with a focus on supporting female end-users. This project has been serving as a case in this research with the purpose of exploring and understanding end-user programming related to self-efficacy and female strategies. Experiences from being a member of the SATIN project are accounted for as well as results from qualitative observation studies capturing subjects’ reactions to the system. In the first set of observations, 9 subjects tested a mock-up version of the so-called SATIN editor, where the actual app building takes place. Later on a second set of observations with 11 subjects focused on how to support computer self-efficacy and end-user programming strategies that women prefer to a higher degree than men. Observations indicate that the women where as positive to making use of the editor as the men. The test subjects also showed signs of motivation as well as creativity while exploring the system. An observation related to design aspects of the system was that the quality of the components that form the smartphone apps seems to be crucial if the system is expected to truly support strategies that women request. Supporting women's own perceptions of self-efficacy related to developing computer-based systems is challenging, still indications of acceptance and enthusiasm for the system were observed. From a design perspective, using strategies and self-efficacy sources as an evaluation framework in the development process shows potential for improved design, and not only when designing for female users, but for diverse groups of users, hopefully paving the way for a more diverse community of producers of computer-based products. / SATIN 2 project

Context. How end user development can be enabled and made attainable through the use of a web based graphical user interface, in systems that contains logic for handling BPMN flows as variation points. Investigated from a UX and usability perspective. Objectives. Designing prototypes of such a web-based interface, and then evaluating the usability with regards to the usability attributes effectiveness and learnability, with the goal finding relevant usability issues & solutions as well as investigating how the two usability attributes affected the participants’ subjective satisfaction. Methods. Two prototype versions were implemented, one based upon the other. A usability inspection (expert evaluation) was performed after the first prototype version (named alpha) was finished and the second version (named beta) was built based on that feedback. The usability of the prototypes were then evaluated in usability test sessions using the think aloud method together with the SUS (System Usability Scale) questionnaire.The recorded data from the usability test sessions was analysed. Usability issues & solutions were noted, filtered, tagged and grouped by design principle with the goal of looking for patterns. SUS scores were calculated from the questionnaires. Additional factor analysis was performed on the SUS data to get separate usability and learnability scores. Results. The results consisted of SUS scores for both prototypes together with learnability and usability scores. Common and noteworthy usability issues & solutions grouped by design principle. Detailed appendixes with scenarios exemplifying recorded video & voice data for four of the most relevant test participants. Conclusions. The two prototypes were compared. Improvements to effectiveness and learnability was found to have a positive impact on the participants’ subjective satisfaction in the described context. Additionally, a number of usability issues and solutions was identified that could be of value when developing similar software. In summary, the following findings were made related to effectiveness: Adding constraints to the number of options available to users helped increase effectiveness. The lack of keyboard shortcuts was a deal breaker for many users and had a negative impact on effectiveness.. Consistency in navigation was more important than expected. The lack of functionality for saving drafts in the browser, without downloading, was something that most users expected and was surprised not to find. Several users expected their drafts to be automatically saved. They were frustrated when their changes were lost without warning. The lack of an undo function was also a big issue for users, causing problems with recovery. Giving immediate feedback with a notification popup after users had deployed a flow worked well and was easier to implement than expected. The connection tool that ship with bpmn-js was hard to learn and use for several users. Additionally, some learnability related findings: Sandbox intended to boost learnability but caused problems with effectiveness. The BPMN notation was not familiar to the test participants. Some training or introduction would have been necessary in a real usage scenario. When important functionality was concealed in submenus it was harder for users to learn how to operate the editor, specifically a problem with the context pad. Properties panel. Issues with visibility of single items due to tabs being too cluttered. Affordance issues on input/output parameters tab. Consistency issue with the bpmn.io logo being placed in the where users expected a save button. Consistency. Negative impact on learnability due to lack of keyboard shortcuts. Users likely to learn faster if they could use the shortcuts they already know. Placement of the download button not consistent with other webapps. Unconventional to only have drag and drop for upload and no button. Issues with visibility and consistency related to maximizing/minimizing editor in beta prototype. Familiarity findings related to deploy button colour and label might have affected learnability.

Organizations today are adopting business intelligence (BI) systems at a fast pace with the expectation that these systems will help them make better business decisions and improve their performance. But with the ever changing industry dynamics and variable business needs of end-users, the BI requirements of organizations are also getting unpredictable and increasingly harder to deliver by the service providers. Additionally, the advancement of web 2.0 & enterprise 2.0 technologies has opened up more possibilities for the development of user-centric innovative business applications. Enterprise BI Mashups are a specific breed of such technologies that have the potential to empower end-users with self-service capabilities and facilitate problem-solving in ad-hoc situational BI scenarios. This research project attempts to explore the current landscape of Business Intelligence (BI) Mashups and to identify gaps in technology with respect to user requirements and corporate objectives. Through an empirical investigation of BI mashups use cases, specific issues and challenges associated with the use of mashups in BI have been ascertained. Working in collaboration with IBM Cognos, we have formulated a taxonomy and utility framework for Enterprise BI Mashups. The formulated taxonomy provides a basic framework for understanding the domain of BI mashups and is aimed to aid application development initiatives for creating BI mashups toolkits. The utility framework draws upon real-world use cases for BI Mashups as well as pertinent software design patterns that can facilitate the development of BI mashup tools and services. These frameworks are expected to advance an understanding of business process requirements that can be satisfied through the use of Enterprise BI Mashups, and also aid in the development of mashup toolkits targeted at BI end-users.

[EN] Model-Driven Development (MDD) promotes models as the cornerstone in the software development process, thereby displacing source code as the development process's main feature. Although this model-centric schema claims advantages over traditional software development (e.g., the code could be automatically generated from the models), it does not have the level of adoption that has been expected. The literature review reveals a broad agreement in the fact that end-users may develop and adapt systems themselves but the complexity in modeling standards and the lack of modeling skills prevents their active involvement in modeling tasks of existing MDD processes. To overcome this, end-users should be provided with different modeling languages that use concepts, which fit their particular skills, context and needs. This challenge is the main goal of this thesis, which is addressed by combining the End-user Development and the Model-Driven Development fields. This work starts with the involvement of end-users into the modeling tasks using a tool-supported visual modeling language that allows end-users to select and customize system features of pervasive systems using closer concepts for them. Afterwards, this thesis shows the necessity of enriching existing MDD processes for supporting the development of a new generation of software systems (e.g., smart health) that require expertise in a variety of domains. Consequently, different types of users (e.g., scientists, engineers and end-users) must actively participate in the description of model fragments that depend on their expertise using a different modeling language. Thus, users are able to collaborate to obtain a unified system description. At this point, it becomes necessary to provide mechanisms that transforms models fragments from one modeling language to another, delimits which model fragments are described by a different user, and integrates those model fragments. To provide this, the presented approach encompasses variability management in a novel way to enable collaborative modeling by supporting both the selection of model fragments of the system that may be described using a different modeling language, and the integration of those model fragments once they are described. Furthermore, interoperability mechanisms bridge two different modeling languages in a non-intrusive way with the structure of models by transforming the description of gaps. Thus, our proposal could enrich models of existing MDD processes with model fragments that have been described using a different modeling language, which could make users feel confident to adopt models for describing domain-specific content and could help to adopt MDD processes. The proposal has been validated in three case studies from different levels of complexity and domains: smart home systems, web information systems, and biomechanical protocols. The results have proven the applicability and feasibility of our approach to actively involve different types of users (end- users with software professionals, domain experts with software development experts, and doctors with biomedical engineers, respectively) in model descriptions of existing MDD processes using a different modeling language. / [ES] En el Desarrollo de Software Dirigido por Modelos (DSDM) los modelos son la piedra angular del proceso de desarrollo de software, desplazando así al código fuente como artefacto principal. Aunque este enfoque centrado en modelos ofrece ventajas sobre el desarrollo de software tradicional (por ejemplo, la generación de código de forma automática a partir de los modelos) no tiene el nivel de adopción esperado. La literatura científica revela un amplio acuerdo en el hecho de que los usuarios finales puedan ellos mismos desarrollar y adaptar los sistemas pero la complejidad de los estándares de modelado y la carencia de habilidades de modelado impide su participación activa en procesos DSDM existentes. Para lograrlo, los usuarios finales deben disponer de lenguajes de modelado diferentes con conceptos adaptados a sus habilidades, contexto y necesidades. Este desafío es el objetivo principal de esta tesis que se aborda combinando las ideas del desarrollo orientado al usuario final y el DSDM. Este trabajo comienza involucrando usuarios finales en tareas de modelado con una herramienta que les proporciona un lenguaje de modelado visual para seleccionar y personalizar características de un sistema pervasivo utilizando conceptos familiares para ellos. Después, esta tesis motiva la necesidad de enriquecer procesos de DSDM existentes para soportar el desarrollo de una nueva generación de sistemas software (por ejemplo, salud inteligente) que requieren conocimientos especializados en una variedad de dominios. Consecuentemente, diferentes tipos de usuarios (por ejemplo, científicos, ingenieros y usuarios finales) deben participar activamente en la descripción de fragmentos de modelos que dependen de su experiencia utilizando un lenguaje de modelado diferente. De este modo, los usuarios pueden colaborar para obtener una descripción del sistema unificada. En este punto, es necesario proporcionar mecanismos que transformen e integren los fragmentos de un lenguaje de modelado a otro y delimiten qué fragmentos se describen por un usuario diferente. Para proporcionar esto, la propuesta presentada utiliza la gestión de variabilidad de forma novedosa para permitir modelado colaborativo seleccionando fragmentos de un modelo del sistema que pueden ser descritos utilizando un lenguaje de modelado diferente y, la integración de esos fragmentos una vez que hayan sido descritos. Además, la propuesta utiliza mecanismos de interoperabilidad para conectar dos lenguajes de modelado diferentes transformando la descripción de los fragmentos de una manera no invasiva con su estructura. Por tanto, nuestra propuesta puede enriquecer los modelos de procesos DSDM existentes con fragmentos de modelos que han sido descritos con un lenguaje diferente y esto, podría hacer que los usuarios se sientan seguros al adoptar modelos para describir contenido de dominio específico y podría ayudar a adoptar procesos DSDM. La propuesta ha sido validada en tres casos de estudio con diferentes niveles de complejidad y dominios: sistemas para el hogar inteligente, sistemas de información web y protocolos biomecánicos. Los resultados han demostrado la aplicabilidad y viabilidad de nuestra propuesta para involucrar diferentes tipos de usuarios (usuarios finales con profesionales de software, expertos en el dominio con expertos en desarrollo de software y, médicos con ingenieros biomédicos, respectivamente) en descripciones de modelos de procesos DSDM existentes utilizando un lenguaje de modelado diferente. / [CA] En el Desenvolupament de Programari Dirigit per Models (DPDM) els models són la pedra angular del procés de desenvolupament de programari, desplaçant així al codi font com a artefacte principal. Encara que aquest enfocament centrat en models ofereix avantatges sobre el desenvolupament de programari tradicional (per exemple, la generació de codi de forma automàtica a partir dels models) no té el nivell d'adopció esperat. La literatura científica revela un ampli acord en el fet que els usuaris finals puguen ells mateixos desenvolupar i adaptar els sistemes però la complexitat dels estàndards de modelatge i la falta d'habilitats de modelatge impedeix la seua participació activa en processos DPDM existents. Per a aconseguir-ho, els usuaris finals han de disposar de llenguatges de modelatge diferents amb conceptes adaptats a les seues habilitats, context i necessitats. Aquest desafiament és l'objectiu principal d'aquesta tesi que s'aborda combinant les idees del desenvolupament orientat a l'usuari final i el DPDM. Aquest treball comença involucrant usuaris finals en tasques de modelatge amb una eina que els proporciona un llenguatge de modelatge visual que permet als usuaris finals seleccionar i personalitzar característiques d'un sistema pervasiu utilitzant conceptes familiars per a ells. Després, aquesta tesi motiva la necessitat d'enriquir processos de DPDM existents per a suportar el desenvolupament d'una nova generació de sistemes programari (per exemple, salut intel¿ligent) que requereixen coneixements especialitzats en una varietat de dominis. Conseqüentment, diferents tipus d'usuaris (per exemple, científics, enginyers i usuaris finals) han de participar activament en la descripció de fragments de models que depenen de la seua experiència utilitzant un llenguatge de modelatge diferent. D'aquesta manera, els usuaris poden col¿laborar per a obtenir una descripció del sistema unificada. En aquest punt, és necessari proporcionar mecanismes que transformen i integren els fragments d'un llenguatge de modelatge a un altre i delimiten quins fragments es descriuen per un usuari diferent. Per a proporcionar açò, la proposta presentada utilitza la gestió de variabilitat de forma nova per a permetre modelatge col.laboratiu seleccionant fragments d'un model del sistema que poden ser descrits utilitzant un llenguatge de modelatge diferent i, la integració d'aqueixos fragments una vegada que hagen sigut descrits. A més, la proposta utilitza mecanismes d'interoperabilitat per a connectar dos llenguatges de modelatge diferents transformant la descripció dels fragments d'una manera no invasiva amb la seua estructura. Per tant, la nostra proposta pot enriquir els models de processos DPDM existents amb fragments de models que han sigut descrits amb un llenguatge diferent i açò, podria fer que els usuaris se senten segurs en adoptar models per a descriure contingut de domini específic i podria ajudar a adoptar processos DPDM. La proposta ha sigut validada en tres casos d'estudi amb diferents nivells de complexitat i dominis: sistemes per a la llar intel¿ligent, sistemes d'informació web i protocols biomecànics. Els resultats han demostrat l'aplicabilitat i viabilitat de la nostra proposta per a involucrar diferents tipus d'usuaris (usuaris finals amb professionals de programari, experts en el domini amb experts en desenvolupament de programari i, metges amb enginyers biomèdics, respectivament) en descripcions de models de processos DPDM existents utilitzant un llenguatge de modelatge diferent. / Pérez Pérez, MF. (2015). Achieving non-intrusive interoperability between models for involving users in modeling tasks [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/58429

Les systèmes d'information d'entreprise actuels s'articulent autour d'applications centrales lourdes, qui ne fournissent pas l'agilité nécessaire pour survivre dans un environnement économique hautement concurrentiel. De nombreux acteurs (unités commerciales, individus, équipes et communautés) doivent introduire leurs propres applications pour pallier à ces limitations, avec pour résultat un système d'information fragmenté, incohérent et impossible à gouverner. Cette étude propose un paradigme d'architecture d'entreprise alternatif, qui s'appuie sur une décomposition plus fine du système d'information et une distribution différente des responsabilités. Il permet à tout acteur de contribuer au système d'information en introduisant des fragments, privés ou partagés avec d'autres acteurs, qui peuvent ensuite être composés pour former des applications dédiées à un profil. Les récents mécanismes de l'informatique sociale sont proposés pour gérer les volumes potentiels importants de fragments émergeant de la communauté d'employés. L'objectif des systèmes d'informations sociaux est à la fois d'améliorer la cohérence et la gouvernabilité du système d'information de l'entreprise et d'exploiter l'intelligence et l'énergie collective de l'entreprise à des fins d'agilité métier maximale. / Present enterprise information systems are centered on heavy corporate applications, which cannot and indeed do not provide the agility required to survive in todays' competitive business landscape. Actors (business units, individuals, teams and communities) must introduce their own applications to work around these limitations, resulting in a fragmented, inconsistent and ungovernable information system. This thesis proposes an alternative enterprise architecture paradigm based upon a finer-grained decomposition of information systems and a different distribution of responsibilities. It empowers all actors to contribute fragments to the information system, private or shared with other actors, which can then be composed to form profile-specific applications. Consumer-space social mechanisms are proposed to manage the potentially huge resulting numbers of fragments emerging from the employee community. The aim of social information systems is both to improve the overall consistency and governability of the enterprise information system and to leverage the collective intelligence and energy of the corporation towards maximum business agility.

När användare bestämmer sig för att utveckla gränssnitt till sina system sker detta via någon form av verktyg. Vi måste avgöra vilken utvecklingsmetodik som ska användas och hur vi kan tillföra mer funktionalitet för att systemet inte ska bli föråldrat. För att svara på detta bryter vi upp arbetet i två delar. I första delen undersöker vi vilken programmeringsmetodik som lämpar sig bäst för gränssnittsutveckling genom en undersökning i två delar. I andra delen ser vi över vilka lösningar som existerar för att implementera ny funktionalitet till ett verktyg för att sedan presentera en egen lösning. / When the user decides to develop an interface for their system, this is done with a software development tool of some kind. We need to determine which development methodology is to be used and how we can add more functionality to the system so it won't become outdated. To tackle this problem we break up the work in two parts. In the first part, we examine which programming methodology is best suited for interface development through a survey that is divided in two parts. In the second part, we look at what solutions exists for implementing new functionality to a tool and we present our solution.

Recent innovations in the information technology and computing devices magnified the volume of available information. Today’s decision makers face the challenge of analyzing ever more data in shorter timeframes. Demand for technology that can efficiently assist systematic data analysis is constantly growing. Development of dedicated information systems is, however, difficult both from organizational and technological point of view. First, traditional software production is a complex and time-consuming process that can not be performed under time-pressure. Second, changing business conditions and evolving stakeholder needs require solutions that can be efficiently tailored over time. Finally, costs of custom software development are high, so that not all use cases and scenarios can be covered sufficiently. This thesis proposes a holistic approach to address the challenges above and to enable efficient development of decision support software. The main idea is to empower end users, i.e., decision makers, in constructing their own case-specific solutions. The proposed approach called Web-Composition for End-User Development consists of a systematic process for development and evolution of decision support systems, assistance mechanisms to address lack of programming skills by decision makers and evolution facilities to enable cost- and time-efficient extensibility of user-produced solutions. The thesis describes implementation of the devised principles and ideas in the context of several open-source projects and application scenarios. Applicability and usability of the concepts are demonstrated in user studies with respective target groups. Based on the outcome analysis the thesis concludes that end users can and should actively participate in construction of decision support software.

World Wide Web (WWW) est devenu le plus grand dépôt d’informations que l’homme ait jamais assemblé et il est en croissance continue. WWW s’est transformé en un environnement génératif qui favorise l’innovation par le développement des technologies et par un changement dans la perception des gens sur le Web et comment l’utilisent. Le nouveau WWW ou l’Internet de l’Avenir est celui d’un Internet des Services et un Internet des Objets.Naturellement, une série des questions se posent à partir de ce contexte : comment filtrez-vous les choses pour créer plus de valeur que vous obtenez actuellement ? Comment pouvez-vous regrouper les choses d’une manière intelligente et facile au lieu de la faire dans votre tête? Le monde ne peut pas être décrit sans ambiguïté, alors comment pouvez-vous permettre aux utilisateurs de traiter avec le monde à leur manière, en fonction de leurcompréhension? Levine dans son livre "Cluetrain manifesto" a argumenté que les marchés sont conversations, alors comment peut-on impliquer les utilisateurs dans la conversation ? Comment les utilisateurs peuvent être autorisés à la consommation facile des services, de l’information, des choses qu’ils trouvent autour?Cependant, la conception et le déploiement d’un tel logiciel capable d’interaction directe et l’autonomisation de l’utilisateur final reste toujours un problème. On a, d’une part, les utilisateurs qui ont des idées, mais qui n’ont pas l’environnement technique et les capacités en programmation pour faire eux-mêmes le développement. D’autre part, on a un grand volume des données, ressources et services qui qui pourraient être regroupées à la fois en termes de données, mais le plus important, en termes de comportement d’innover et de créer nouveaux objets. Notre objectif dans cette thèse est de combler ce manque d’outils qui sont capables d’une interaction directe et l’autonomisation des utilisateurs finaux, de manière unifiée. Ainsi, notre principale contribution dans cette thèse est le développement d’une approche holistique pour les systèmes basés sur le Web qui sont centrés sur l’utilisateur etqui intègrent des données, les services et le comportement disponible sur le Web 2.0. / World Wide Web (WWW) has become the greatest repository of information that man has ever assembled and it is continuously growing. WWW transformed itself into a generative environment that fosters innovation through the advance of technologies and a shift in people’s perception of the Weband how they use it. The new WWW or Future Internet is that of an Internet of Services and Internet of Things.Naturally, a series of questions arise from this context: how do you filter things to create more value than you currently get? how do you aggregate things in an intelligent and easy way instead of doing it in your head? The world cannot be described unambiguously, so how can you allow users to deal with the world in their own way, based on their understanding? Levine in his book "Cluetrain manifesto" was arguing that markets are conversations so how can users be involved in the conversation? how can users be empowered with easy consumption of the services, information, things that they found around?However design and deployment of such software capable of direct interaction and empowerment of the end-user is still an issue. We have on one side users that have ideas, but do not have technical background and lack programming skills to do the development by themselves. On the other side, we have large amounts of data, resources and services that could be aggregated both in terms of data, but most important in terms of behavior to innovate and create new things.Our goal in this thesis is to address this lack of tools that are capable of direct interaction andempowerment of end-users, in a unified manner. Thus our main contribution in this thesis is the development of a holistic approach for web based systems that are user-centric and that integrate data, services and behavior available on the Web 2.0.