I like Wikipedia’s definition of hacker as a person “who achieves goals by non-standard means.” Though Wikipedia limits hackers to people “skilled in information technology,” I prefer a more expansive view. While I agree that skill in the area that is being hacked is essential—a coder can only hack code they understand and an artist can only create a successful artists’ book with a strong knowledge of books—I don’t believe hacking need to be limited to IT work. Here, I’ve “hacked” Quire’s 360-degree image viewer in six different ways using conventional tools like a printer, iPhone, Photoshop, and an X-Acto knife.
