Agreed on all points, except for the definition of "use". Sure, my mom can now send emails, visit websites, even make her own newsletters with clip art, and that's mindblowingly fantastic. But she can't build a dynamic website herself, or add a new feature to an existing program she uses. (iWeb and Automator are a good start, but not good enough.)
I'd like to think that someday, creating simple software will be something everyone will be able to do. Perhaps it's a situation similar to AI, where a generalized all-purpose solution is a pipe dream, but where narrow domain-specific solutions are more achievable; for example, platforms like ifttt.com or FormStack, which are highly usable to semi-techie prosumers. The future's still wide open, so we'll see what happens. :)
I don't know if the demand is there. Most first-world citizens don't create their own literature, music, art or furniture, even though the tools are readily available. I doubt mom and pop will start programming, because I doubt they want to.
Agreed on all points, except for the definition of "use". Sure, my mom can now send emails, visit websites, even make her own newsletters with clip art, and that's mindblowingly fantastic. But she can't build a dynamic website herself, or add a new feature to an existing program she uses. (iWeb and Automator are a good start, but not good enough.)
I'd like to think that someday, creating simple software will be something everyone will be able to do. Perhaps it's a situation similar to AI, where a generalized all-purpose solution is a pipe dream, but where narrow domain-specific solutions are more achievable; for example, platforms like ifttt.com or FormStack, which are highly usable to semi-techie prosumers. The future's still wide open, so we'll see what happens. :)