Hacking

Hacking is an interesting term. The common definition turns it into a nasty creature:

To use one’s skill in computer programming to gain illegal or unauthorized access to a file or network: hacked into the company’s intranet.“hack.” The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 01 Oct. 2006.

Computer geeks like me tend to refer to this as “cracking.” And it appears that our definition of the term “hack” in its original sense is coming back in mainstream news as well. Yahoo recently had a 24-hour “Yahoo Hack Day,” and in its press release, they mention that: “Hack is used in its original sense of ‘creative programming’ not illicit sense of breaking into computers.” What has brought about this change? My theory: Mash-ups.

Mash-ups like Frappr are websites that fundamentally require one or more other sites to function. In Frappr’s case, they use Google Maps to create a site where online communities can ‘pin’ their location in the map to show their spread across the globe. It works because Google has an open API that allows other sites to send and request information from Google.

Mash-ups are common in the so-called ‘Web 2.0′ world, where the user is king, and blogging, podcasts, and Flickr are everyday terms. After Digg came out there were mash-ups that combined Digg and Slashdot, later after other copycats of Digg came, there were mash-ups of these new sites.

The mash-up is probably just a step along the way to maturity for web programming. Application programming saw similar trends, which birthed the PC, Apple, Linux, BSD, GNU, and Open Source Software (OSS). Today, it is nearly a harmonic interaction with the rise of OSS coinciding, and building with, the rise of mashups and cheap internet programming. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

It could go the way of Microsoft, IBM, Sun and Oracle, the titans of application programming. Or it could be unpredictable, following in Google’s footsteps and beyond in ways that are unimagineable. All that can be said for certain is that while Richard Stallman and his followers were tainted by the taste of freedom in OSS, my generation, including myself, will be tainted by this movement. It may be a trend, but perhaps, just perhaps, it will be more. Perhaps it will lead to a change in the way managements are structured. Perhaps it will lead to a weakening of Global Corporations. Perhaps, just perhaps, it will lead to real Democracy and freedom.

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