Unlocking Generativity through Hacking

Unlocking generativity barriers through acts of hacking

As we have seen in several high profile hacker innovation examples, hacking provides an effective means to unlock the inherent generative potential held within the design module configurations within an existing technology through the circumvention of manufacturer established barriers put in place to ensure undisrupted appropriation of rents generated through the creation and exploitation of proprietary and open intellectual property. When acts of hacking break through walled gardens to enable the reconfiguration of design modules, they unlock the inherent generativity potential. Furthermore (and more alarmingly for the value-seeking firm) this situation has the potential to turn a technology into a market disruptor unto itself, its creators and the interests of the commercially motivated firm by preventing it from allowing the flow and generating rents back to the original architect, designer, firm, industry and wider economy. Whilst these forms of hacking may restrict the flow of rents towards the IP owner, they provide new knowledge and innovations to the commons as a whole for the absorptive firm to benefit from.