Hacking as a
critical practice

How can hacking be
used as a critical tool?

How do textual and
visual hacks influence
the virtual society?

Pleasehackme.net is a live thesis about hacking as a critical practice. Hacking in the sense of modifying and contextualising. The debate does not relate to the traditional context of software building, but will focus on how the critic as user can employ certain tools in order to intervene with virtual content.

Blogs and social networks supposedly contribute to a democratization of online content. Over the last few years new forms of adding content and therefore of potential critical engagement with the web have appeared. Software for augmented browsing allows to establish meta-layers above websites. It makes possible to directly interfere in the content of existing pages, like for example a newspaper article, instead of solely commenting below. As a case study for my thesis I chose ShiftSpace. Its applications exemplify, how one can critically hack a website by superposing sticky notes, selecting through highlighting, swapping images and even modifying the source code. Text and images can be altered or 'corrected'. Potential hacks are only visible for the ShiftSpace community and just if one explicitly chooses to see them.

Until 15 September 2010 pleasehackme.net will be steadily developing into my thesis in design writing criticism. The provisional chapters will be filled step by step outlining my research outcomes.

Feel free to take a stroll through my page and explore the different chapters. I am looking forward to your contribution, be it a hack or a simple comment. Just download ShiftSpace and experiment!

Hacking as a
critical practice

How can hacking be
used as a critical tool?

How do textual and
visual hacks influence
the virtual society?

Pleasehackme.net is a live thesis about hacking as a critical practice. Hacking in the sense of modifying and contextualising. The debate does not relate to the traditional context of software building, but will focus on how the critic as user can employ certain tools in order to intervene with virtual content.

Blogs and social networks supposedly contribute to a democratization of online content. Over the last few years new forms of adding content and therefore of potential critical engagement with the web have appeared. Software for augmented browsing allows to establish meta-layers above websites. It makes possible to directly interfere in the content of existing pages, like for example a newspaper article, instead of solely commenting below. As a case study for my thesis I chose ShiftSpace. Its applications exemplify, how one can critically hack a website by superposing sticky notes, selecting through highlighting, swapping images and even modifying the source code. Text and images can be altered or 'corrected'. Potential hacks are only visible for the ShiftSpace community and just if one explicitly chooses to see them.

Until 15 September 2010 pleasehackme.net will be steadily developing into my thesis in design writing criticism. The provisional chapters will be filled step by step outlining my research outcomes.

Feel free to take a stroll through my page and explore the different chapters. I am looking forward to your contribution, be it a hack or a simple comment. Just download ShiftSpace and experiment!