Hacking, Mashing, Gluing: Understanding Opportunistic Design

Opportunistic practices can accelerate and simplify ubiquitous computing systems design. Such practices may include copying and pasting code from online forums into one's own scripts or reappropriating components from consumer electronics for design prototypes. The authors introduce a framework that links opportunistic design for ubiquitous computing to hardware and software practices. They interview 14 professional and hobbyist "mashers"-Web 2.0 programmers, hardware hackers, and designers of interactive ubiquitous computing systems-to learn how designers choose between integration levels. Finally, they discover the mashups' epistemic, pragmatic, and intrinsic values for creators and how shopping becomes a central activity.

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