Aaron Loveall
Summary:
The paper describes a small but growing subculture of people who call themselves "IKEA Hackers." IKEA hacking involves taking IKEA furniture and modifying it in some way to make it a custom piece. The activity is meant to encourage creativity and originality. The power of the community on a global scale comes from the fact that the exact same parts are available globally at IKEA stores. This allows the community to collaborate and release DIY projects with specific parts.
IKEA hackers are very creative and release many different and odd pieces such as a gynecologist chair, hanging laps, and even a vibrator. Many of the IKEA hackers have different reasons for doing there projects but many list the hobby as their creative outlet. One hacker described that in his 20's he let his creative spirit loose for recognition but has now become obsessed with it. Another lists his children as a motivation for many of his pieces.
Discussion:
I thought this paper was really interesting. I was unaware of the hobby of IKEA hacking and was very intrigued. As I read it I did question the academic qualities of the paper however. I wondered whether describing an internet community was truly an academic pursuit. It would have helped if they had gone into more detail regarding the community, their motivation, organization, and structure.
There isn't really much to do beyond this study. More depth could be added but there is not a very large reason to pursue this information. While I see this as an interesting article it may have been more usefull to study the differences and similiarities between different, small internet groups.
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