What is ShiftSpace?
This is one of the most interesting applications of social network that I’ve seen in a while. Instead of operating on a completely separate domain, like MySpace, ShiftSpace allows the entire internet to be included in the landscape that forms the ShiftSpace network. This means that ShiftSpace users can interact in real ways with existing viewpoints, discussions, and events that are actually occurring throughout the world. This makes ShiftSpace more relevant than any closed system could be.
ShiftSpace is an open source layer above any website. It seeks to expand the creative possibilities currently provided through the web. ShiftSpace provides tools for artists, designers, architects, activists, developers, students, researchers, and hobbyists to create online contexts built in and on top of websites.
While the Internet’s design is widely understood to be open and distributed, control over how users interact online has given us largely centralized and closed systems. The web has followed the physical transformation of the city’s social center from the (public) town square to the (private) mall. ShiftSpace attempts to subvert this trend by providing a new public space on the web.
By pressing the [shift] + [space] keys, a ShiftSpace user can invoke a new meta layer above any web page to browse and create additional interpretations, contextualizations and interventions – which we call Shifts. Users can choose between several authoring tools we’re working to develop – which we call Spaces. Some are utilitarian (like Notes and Highlights) and some are more interventionist (like ImageSwap and SourceShift). Users will be invited to map these shifts into Trails. These trails can be used for collaborative research, curating netart exhibitions or as platforms for context-based public debates. more…
ShiftSpace currently offers a FireFox extension and a GreaseMonkey script as tools to create spaces over webpages. However, more tools are being developed.
Potential ShiftSpace Applications?
It is possible to swap images or HTML source code from a website and replace them with other elements of your choice. You can also leave post-it notes on pages. One example given was fighting censorship of the Google search results in China by leaving a note that contains a link to the censored website.
You can even follow recent shifts made through RSS feeds.
Read about ShiftSpace in the Social Media Wiki.
What’s Your Experience?
Have you used ShiftSpace before? What are other applications for this technology? Leave a comment and share what you think.
