System User

A System User is a person who can use a computing system.

• Context:
  • They can (typically) make System User Actions.
  • ...
  • They can range from (typically) being an System End-User to being a System Administrator User.
  • They can range from being a Service User to being a Product User.
  • ...
  • They can have:
    • a User Preference, (e.g. high preference for punk music, low preference for classical music).
    • a User Interest (e.g. “1950s film noir movies”, “Perl hacking”).
  • They can agree to a Legal Agreement with the Computing System Owner.
  • They can provide User Input.
  • They can communicate with another User (in a user communication act).
  • They can have a User Experience.
  • They can have a User Journey (modeled by a user journey model).
  • They can manifest a User Behavior.
  • They can be associated to a User Persona.
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • one of a CI/CD System.
  • one of a Spotify's Recommender System.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • a Citizen.
  • a Drug User.
• See: User Profile, Information User, User Information Need.

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References

2024

• LLM
  • The word "user" has an interesting history and etymology. Here's a concise overview:
  • Etymology:
    • "User" comes from the Old French word "user" meaning "to use, employ, practice," which in turn derives from the Latin "usare," a frequentative form of "uti" meaning "to use."
  • Historical development:
    • Early usage (14th-15th centuries):
      • Initially, "user" referred to someone who enjoyed or practiced something habitually.
    • Legal context (16th-17th centuries):
      • The term gained prominence in legal language, referring to someone with the right to use property belonging to another.
    • Drug context (Late 19th century onwards):
      • The association of "user" with drug consumption began in the late 19th century as opiate addiction became known. Newspaper articles from this period often used phrases like "habitual users of drugs" or "morphine users".
      • In the early 20th century, as drug addiction became more criminalized and associated with marginalized groups, "user" increasingly referred to individuals involved in illicit drug use. This transition was influenced by laws such as the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914, which marked a shift from viewing addiction as a medical issue to a criminal one.
      • By the mid-20th century, "user" was commonly applied in the context of illegal drug consumption, and by the 1960s-1970s, the term alone could imply "drug user" in certain contexts.
    • Digital age (late 20th-21st century):
      • "User" became ubiquitous in the context of software, websites, and digital services.
      • Examples of its evolving usage in the digital era:
        • 1980s: "Computer user" becomes a common term as personal computers gain popularity.
        • 1990s: "Internet user" emerges with the growth of the World Wide Web.
        • 2000s: "Social media user" appears as platforms like MySpace and Facebook rise.
        • 2010s-present: "End user" gains prominence in software development and UX design discussions.

2020

• (Wikipedia, 2020) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/user_(computing) Retrieved:2020-5-5.
  • A user is a person who utilizes a computer or network service. Users of computer systems and software products generally lack the technical expertise required to fully understand how they work. Jargon File entry for </ref> Power users use advanced features of programs, though they are not necessarily capable of computer programming and system administration.

    A user often has a user account and is identified to the system by a username (or user name). Other terms for username include login name, screenname (or screen name), account name, nickname (or nick) and handle, which is derived from the identical citizens band radio term.

    Some software products provide services to other systems and have no direct end users.

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