User Generated Human Computation Applications

Abstract

Social Web applications have successfully transformed content consuming users into content producers. Aside of socializing, these applications are frequently used to disseminate information and coordinate purposeful activities, such as disaster response, political action, and neighborhood organizations. These activities are carried out via human interpreted messages. In many cases, dedicated information processing spaces would better serve such needs. Unfortunately, a typical Web user is not able to create even very simple applications, as they require significant technical know-how. This work proposes an approach towards creating simple collaborative applications. The approach, called We Flow, proposes a collaborative application specification, an application generator, and an execution engine. The We Flow framework is presented with focus on the implementation issues. A case study, where users report and track accessibility violations, is presented for demonstration purposes.