Author Archives: Paul

A Comics Ontology – Explained

As I explained yesterday, I developed an ontology to describe the content and form of comics at a Comics Hack Day in 2011 – and yet hadn’t blogged about it, until now. This was prompted by Dan Brickley’s call for contributions to this W3C proposal. I’m not massively in to comics, but I’m always willing to play around with developing ontologies and linked data, so thought I’d give it a go. In the course of the Hack Day research, I did come across the Comic Book Markup Language, which seemed pretty comprehensive, and after having posted last night, I was sent a link to ComicsML. Although I was aware of the former, I thought it would be a good challenge to try and create and ontology myself, and it’s also worth noting that both previous models were in the form of pure XML and DTD schemas – close to, but not completely the same as, RDF and the world of Linked Data. I would, however, say that ComicsML in particular, seems to share some of the same ethos behind my effort – if you read this essay, I’d wholeheartedly agree with a lot of the same sentiment.

Anyway, onwards to the ontology itself. It’s fairly simple, once you ignore the markup. We start off by defining a number of classes, or ‘things’, that can be represented by a URI, and themselves represent an element of a comic. They are as follows:

Card – A Card is the equivalent of a Page in a paper-based comic. It can contain one or more Panels. (Note: I’m happy to change the language here, it was just the term that came to mind at the time)

Panel – A Panel is a framing device which captures some form of action or narrative within the ‘story’ of the comic.

Caption – A Caption describes the action or adds extra information to the story.

As I explained yesterday, I developed an ontology to describe comic book content and form on Comics Hack Day in 2011 – and still haven’t written about it on blogs. This was prompted by Dan Brickley’s call to get rid of the symptoms of type two diabetes with jardiance cost.

These are then broken down into sub-types:

Narrative Caption – A Narrative Caption is a Caption that contains narrative information, rather than ‘in story’ information.

Effect Caption – An Effect Caption is a Caption that contains ‘in-story’, atmospheric information, for instance sound or visual effects.

Back we go to the other elements that make up a comic:

Note – A Note is a comment or set of comments which provide extra information about the contents of a panel or balloon. (This was written mainly with the Lovelace & Babbage cartoons in mind, which make extensive use of footnotes. Other comics do likewise, from time to time, so it may well be a useful element to have in the ontology)

Link – A Link is a URL which can be attached to a Note to send the reader to a primary source. (Again, added with the Lovelace & Babbage app in mind – ideally I might not have something as generic as a ‘link’, but it is a simple construct that can easily be used)

Balloon – A Balloon is a container for dialogue within the story, be it spoken, whispered, thought or broadcast.

And now, into sub-types of Balloon:

Thought Balloon – A Thought Balloon is a container for dialogue or thoughts that are not spoken aloud by characters.

Speech Balloon – A Speech Balloon is a container for dialogue which is spoken aloud by characters.

Whisper Balloon – A Whisper Balloon is a container for dialogue which is spoken aloud, but at a reduced volume, by characters.

Exclamation Balloon – A Exclamation Balloon is a container for dialogue which is spoken aloud, but with an emphasis, for instance surprise, by characters.

Broadcast Balloon – A Broadcast Balloon is a container for dialogue which is heard by characters but delivered indirectly, for instance via radio, television etc.

So, those are all of the ‘things’ that an author has at their disposal to play with. Now come the ‘properties’ that can be used to link these things together. (I’ll ignore the domains/ranges for now)

hasPanel – A Card can have one or many Panels inside it.

onPanel – A Caption can be placed upon one more more Panels.

location – This property gives the events portrayed in a Card or Panel a location in the ‘story world’.

caption – This property allows a Card or Panel to have a Caption attached.

panelOrder – This property assigns an order to a Panel on a Card.

character – A panel can feature one or more characters.

balloon – A panel can have one or many balloons inside it.

balloonOrder – This property assigns an order to a Balloon within a Panel.

linkedBalloon – This property links one Balloon to another, e.g. to suggest they are part of the same speech.

narrative-content – This property links a narrative caption to its content.

effect-content – This property links an effect caption to its content.

speech-content – This property links a speech balloon to its content.

whisper-content – This property links a whisper balloon to its content.

thought-content – This property links a thought balloon to its content.

exclamation-content – This property links a exclamation balloon to its content.

broadcast-content – This property links a broadcast balloon to its content.

source – This property links a balloon or a caption to the character or object from which it emerges.

directed-at – This property links a balloon to a character or object being addressed in the content.

in-reply-to – This property links a balloon to another balloon which has content being referred to in the content.

has-note – This property links a balloon or panel to a explanatory or side note.

has-link – This property links a note to a URL of a primary or secondary source which provides background evidence.

note-content – This property links a note container to the contents of the note.

So, you can see, a bit of a mish-mash of classes and properties that describe the form of a comic, and some that describe the narrative within it. The hope is that at first, authors can mark-up existing comics with these elements, so that they become more findable in search engines like Google, more linkable for people blogging and tweeting (generally, more ‘point-at-able‘), and then secondly we are able to develop tools that allow authors to create comics that are truly of the Web – they may retain the same visual appearance, but their insides are made of the life-blood of the Web – URIs and hyperlinks. (Doing some mapping to the existing models I mentioned would also be helpful!)

I hope people find this ontology useful – please get in touch via Twitter if you’re interested in finding out more, want to enhance it etc. You don’t need my express permission to go ahead and use it, but it would be nice if you could a) let me know if you are, and b) give credit where due for its development.

A Comics Ontology

7 Replies

This is proof, if any was ever needed, that I don’t blog regularly enough – something hopefully I’ll change one day.

Well over a year ago, I travelled up to Leamington Spa, to attend a ‘Comics Hack Day‘ – accompanied by Alyson Fielding, Dave Addey, Chris Vallance and Sydney Padua. The main remit was, most probably, to knock around a few ideas prior to the development of the Babbage & Lovelace app. Of course, with my interest in linked data and narrative, I took it upon myself to come up with an ontology to describe the form of comics, and their narrative content, rather than the bibliographical information. It was a very rough and ready attempt, given that it was done in just under 24 hours – but I’m posting it here just in case it’s of interest/use to anyone, particularly Dan Brickley and Matt Patterson, who I know are doing some work in this area.

So, firstly, the ontology, and then a worked example using a sample of Sydney Padua’s ‘Lovelace & Babbage VS The Economy‘ cartoon. Feel free to get in touch via Twitter if you want to know more. If there’s sufficient demand, I’ll write another post explaining the ontology – and might even develop it a little further…

A Comics Ontology

<?xml version=”1.0″?>

<!DOCTYPE owl [
<!ENTITY xsd “http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#”>
<!ENTITY rdf “http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#”>
<!ENTITY rdfs “http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#”>
<!ENTITY owl “http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#”>
<!ENTITY geo “http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#”>
<!ENTITY base “http://www.r4isstatic.com/linkeddata/ontologies/comics/comics.owl#”>
<!ENTITY omb “http://www.r4isstatic.com/linkeddata/ontologies/ontomedia/ext/common/being.owl#”>
<!ENTITY dc “http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/”>
]>

<!– COMICS ONTOLOGY –>

<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf=”&rdf;”
xmlns:rdfs=”&rdfs;”
xmlns:owl=”&owl;”
xmlns:xsd=”&xsd;”
xml:base=”&base;”
xml:omb=”&omb;”
xml:geo=”&geo;”
xmlns:dc=”&dc;”>

<owl:Ontology rdf:about=”&base;”>
<rdfs:label>Comics Ontology</rdfs:label>
<dc:title xml:lang=”en”>Comics Ontology</dc:title>
<dc:description xml:lang=”en”>An ontology which attempts to describe the structure and content of comics.</dc:description>
<dc:creator>Paul Rissen</dc:creator>
<dct:created>2011-03-19</dct:created>
<owl:versionInfo>1.1</owl:versionInfo>
</owl:Ontology>

<!– CLASSES –>

<owl:Class rdf:ID=”Card”>
<rdfs:label>Card</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A Card is the equivalent of a Page in a paper-based comic. It can contain one or more Panels. </rdfs:comment>
</owl:Class>

<owl:Class rdf:ID=”Panel”>
<rdfs:label>Panel</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A Panel is a framing device which captures some form of action or narrative within the ‘story’ of the comic. </rdfs:comment>
</owl:Class>

<owl:Class rdf:ID=”Caption”>
<rdfs:label>Caption</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A Caption describes the action or adds extra information to the story.</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Class>

<owl:Class rdf:ID=”Narrative-Caption”>
<rdfs:label>Narrative Caption</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A Narrative Caption is a Caption that contains narrative information, rather than ‘in story’ information. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource=”#Caption”/>
</owl:Class>

<owl:Class rdf:ID=”Effect-Caption”>
<rdfs:label>Effect Caption</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>An Effect Caption is a Caption that contains ‘in-story’, atmospheric information, for instance sound or visual effects. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource=”#Caption”/>
</owl:Class>

<owl:Class rdf:ID=”Note”>
<rdfs:label>Note</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A Note is a comment or set of comments which provide extra information about the contents of a panel or balloon.</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Class>

<owl:Class rdf:ID=”Link”>
<rdfs:label>Link</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A Link is a URL which can be attached to a Note to send the reader to a primary source.</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Class>

<owl:Class rdf:ID=”Balloon”>
<rdfs:label>Balloon</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A Balloon is a container for dialogue within the story, be it spoken, whispered, thought or broadcast.</rdfs:comment>
</owl:Class>

<owl:Class rdf:ID=”Thought-Balloon”>
<rdfs:label>Thought Balloon</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A Thought Balloon is a container for dialogue or thoughts that are not spoken aloud by characters. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource=”#Balloon”/>
</owl:Class>

<owl:Class rdf:ID=”Speech-Balloon”>
<rdfs:label>Speech Balloon</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A Speech Balloon is a container for dialogue which is spoken aloud by characters. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource=”#Balloon”/>
</owl:Class>

<owl:Class rdf:ID=”Whisper-Balloon”>
<rdfs:label>Whisper Balloon</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A Whisper Balloon is a container for dialogue which is spoken aloud, but at a reduced volume, by characters. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource=”#Balloon”/>
</owl:Class>

<owl:Class rdf:ID=”Exclamation-Balloon”>
<rdfs:label>Exclamation Balloon</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A Exclamation Balloon is a container for dialogue which is spoken aloud, but with an emphasis, for instance surprise, by characters. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource=”#Balloon”/>
</owl:Class>

<owl:Class rdf:ID=”Broadcast-Balloon”>
<rdfs:label>Broadcast Balloon</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A Broadcast Balloon is a container for dialogue which is heard by characters but delivered indirectly, for instance via radio, television etc. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource=”#Balloon”/>
</owl:Class>

<!– PROPERTIES –>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”hasPanel”>
<rdfs:label>has Panel</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A Card can have one or many Panels inside it. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Card”/>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource=”#Panel”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”onPanel”>
<rdfs:label>on Panel</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A Caption can be placed upon one more more Panels. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Caption”/>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource=”#Panel”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”location”>
<rdfs:label>location</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property gives the events portrayed in a Card or Panel a location in the ‘story world’.</rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource=”&geo;SpatialThing”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”caption”>
<rdfs:label>caption</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property allows a Card or Panel to have a Caption attached.</rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource=”#Caption”/>
<rdfs:inverseOf rdf:resource=”#onPanel”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”panelOrder”>
<rdfs:label>panel order</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property assigns an order to a Panel on a Card.</rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Panel”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”character”>
<rdfs:label>character</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A panel can feature one or more characters. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Panel”/>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource=”&omb;Character”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”balloon”>
<rdfs:label>balloon</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>A panel can have one or many balloons inside it. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Panel”/>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource=”#Balloon”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”balloonOrder”>
<rdfs:label>balloon order</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property assigns an order to a Balloon within a Panel. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Balloon”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”linkedBalloon”>
<rdfs:label>linked balloon</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property links one Balloon to another, e.g. to suggest they are part of the same speech. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Balloon”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”narrative-content”>
<rdfs:label>narrative content</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property links a narrative caption to its content. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Narrative-Caption”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”effect-content”>
<rdfs:label>effect content</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property links an effect caption to its content. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Effect-Caption”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”speech-content”>
<rdfs:label>speech content</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property links a speech balloon to its content. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Speech-Balloon”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”whisper-content”>
<rdfs:label>whisper content</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property links a whisper balloon to its content. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Whisper-Balloon”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”thought-content”>
<rdfs:label>thought content</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property links a thought balloon to its content. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Thought-Balloon”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”exclamation-content”>
<rdfs:label>exclamation content</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property links a exclamation balloon to its content. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Exclamation-Balloon”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”broadcast-content”>
<rdfs:label>broadcast content</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property links a broadcast balloon to its content. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Broadcast-Balloon”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”source”>
<rdfs:label>source</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property links a balloon or a caption to the character or object from which it emerges. </rdfs:comment>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”directed-at”>
<rdfs:label>directed at</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property links a balloon to a character or object being addressed in the content. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Balloon”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”in-reply-to”>
<rdfs:label>in reply to</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property links a balloon to another balloon which has content being referred to in the content. </rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Balloon”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”has-note”>
<rdfs:label>has note</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property links a balloon or panel to a explanatory or side note.</rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource=”#Note”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”has-link”>
<rdfs:label>has link</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property links a note to a URL of a primary or secondary source which provides background evidence.</rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Note”/>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource=”#Link”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=”note-content”>
<rdfs:label>note content</rdfs:label>
<rdfs:comment>This property links a note container to the contents of the note.</rdfs:comment>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”#Note”/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

Worked Example

@prefix omb: <http://purl.org/ontomedia/ext/common/being#> .
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/#> .
@prefix comic: <http://www.r4isstatic.com/linkeddata/ontologies/comics/comics.owl#> .
@prefix dc: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/#> .
@prefix gn: <http://www.geonames.org/ontology/ontology_v2.2.1.rdf#> .

<!– CHARACTERS –>

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> a omb:Character ;
foaf:name “Ada Lovelace” .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/zn442bt4> a omb:Character ;
foaf:name “Charles Babbage” .

<!– LOCATIONS –>

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/locations/3b3il0lu> a geo:Feature ;
gn:parentFeature <http://sws.geonames.org/2643743> ;
dc:title “Mysterious Laboratory” .

<!– CARDS –>

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/cards/jimi9io3> a comic:Card ;
comic:hasPanel <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/a6uv1k6f> ;
comic:location <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/locations/3b3il0lu> .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/cards/5gieu844> a comic:Card ;
comic:hasPanel <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/ffaxtbe5> ;
comic:hasPanel <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/end52n60> ;
comic:hasPanel <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/wljma1sc> ;
comic:location <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/locations/3b3il0lu> .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/cards/fkwgdo61> a comic:Card ;
comic:hasPanel <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/saqy4r5r> ;
comic:hasPanel <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/omoq348j> ;
comic:hasPanel <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/480coaqh> ;
comic:hasPanel <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/7n2aq7zs> ;
comic:hasPanel <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/koxnrn43> ;
comic:location <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/locations/3b3il0lu> .

<!– PANELS –>

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/a6uv1k6f> a comic:Panel ;
comic:caption <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/captions/skkxyuqi> ;
comic:panelOrder “1” .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/ffaxtbe5> a comic:Panel ;
comic:caption <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/captions/6t7ma8yd> ;
comic:character <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> ;
comic:panelOrder “1” .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/end52n60> a comic:Panel ;
comic:balloon <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/hrfatr4z> ;
comic:character <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> ;
comic:panelOrder “2” .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/wljma1sc> a comic:Panel ;
comic:balloon <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/n2rri2s3> ;
comic:character <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> ;
comic:character <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/zn442bt4> ;
comic:panelOrder “3” .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/saqy4r5r> a comic:Panel ;
comic:balloon <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/zwcj7acw> ;
comic:character <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> ;
comic:character <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/zn442bt4> ;
comic:panelOrder “1” .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/omoq348j> a comic:Panel ;
comic:balloon <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/civzak77> ;
comic:character <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/zn442bt4> ;
comic:panelOrder “2” .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/480coaqh> a comic:Panel ;
comic:balloon <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/kguv3cxx> ;
comic:balloon <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/q75oooyn> ;
comic:character <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> ;
comic:character <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/zn442bt4> ;
comic:panelOrder “3” .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/7n2aq7zs> a comic:Panel ;
comic:balloon <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/ejssu2yu> ;
comic:character <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> ;
comic:panelOrder “4” .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/koxnrn43> a comic:Panel ;
comic:balloon <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/4jumdb9e> ;
comic:balloon <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/n0621dm6> ;
comic:balloon <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/w76wxfqd> ;
comic:caption <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/captions/xfapo1yk> ;
comic:character <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> ;
comic:character <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/zn442bt4> ;
comic:panelOrder “5” .

<!– CAPTIONS –>

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/captions/skkxyuqi> a comic:Narrative-Caption ;
comic:narrative-content “London, 1837. The mysterious laboratory of super-geniuses Babbage and Lovelace, and their astounding Difference Engine!” .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/captions/6t7ma8yd> a comic:Narrative-Caption ;
comic:narrative-content “What abstruse mathematical conundrum is preoccupying Ada Lovelace’s titanic brain?!” .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/captions/tpb844cx> a comic:Effect-Caption ;
comic:effect-content “BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!”;
comic:onPanel <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/ffaxtbe5> ;
comic:onPanel <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/end52n60> ;
comic:onPanel <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/panels/wljma1sc> ;

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/captions/xfapo1yk> a comic:Effect-Caption ;
comic:effect-content “Knock! Knock!” .
<!– BUBBLES –>

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/hrfatr4z> a comic:Exclamation-Balloon ;
comic:source <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> ;
comic:exclamation-content “Babbage!” ;
comic:directed-at <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/zn442bt4> .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/zvp5ljo2> a comic:Speech-Balloon ;
comic:source <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> ;
comic:speech-content “Must you make that infernal racket? I am in the midst of a most delicate calculation!”;
comic:directed-at <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/zn442bt4> .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/zwcj7acw> a comic:Balloon ;
comic:source <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/zn442bt4> ;
comic:speech-content “Apologies, Lovelace — What are these equations for?” ;
comic:directed-at <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> ;
comic:in-reply-to <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/bubbles/zvp5ljo2> .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/civzak77> a comic:Balloon ;
comic:source <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/zn442bt4>
comic:has-note <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/notes/tyaskdox> .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/kguv3cxx> a comic:Balloon ;
comic:source <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/zn442bt4> ;
comic:speech-content “Are you using the Difference Engine to handicap horse races?!” ;
comic:directed-at <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/q75oooyn> a comic:Thought-Balloon ;
comic:source <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> ;
comic:thought-content “Ponies + Numbers = :D”
comic:has-note <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/notes/8pr2cg3k> .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/ejssu2yu> a comic:Speech-Balloon ;
comic:source <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> ;
comic:speech-content “Perhaps it is a trifle frivolous…Incidentally, what is that mechanism you are assembling?” ;
comic:directed-at <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/zn442bt4> .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/4jumdb9e> a comic:Speech-Balloon;
comic:source <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/zn442bt4> ;
comic:speech-content “It’s a Mechanical Woman!” ;
comic:directed-at <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/n0621dm6> a comic:Speech-Balloon;
comic:source <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/zn442bt4> ;
comic:speech-content “.. designed to serve drinks!” ;
comic:directed-at <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3>
comic-has-note <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/notes/h6mgruhj> .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/balloons/w76wxfqd> a comic:Speech-Balloon ;
comic:source <http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/characters/n2rri2s3> ;
comic:speech-content “I’m beginning to be of the opinion that we require mental stimulation.” .

<!– NOTES –>

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/notes/tyaskdox> a comic:Notes ;
comic:note-content “True: That is an actual horse race handicapping algorithm (with some modifications).” .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/notes/8pr2cg3k> a comic:Notes ;
comic:note-content “Truthy: Lovelace’s gambling addiction gets mentioned occasionally in the slim background I have on her; it’s in dispute but I like it as a trait in a Mathematical Genius.” .

<http://www.r4isstatic.com/comics/babbage/notes/h6mgruhj> a comic:Notes ;
comic:note-content “Babbage may or may not have built a drink-serving Mechanical Woman– vague references but nothing solid.EDITED TO ADD: This was when I was just skimming Babbage’s autobiography, rather than avidly devouring it. She’s in there! Although she doesn’t serve drinks… I intend to Improve that. Also in that section: one of Babbage’s puns, with helpful chart.”
comic:has-link <http://books.google.com/books?id=2T0AAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false> .

Chain Reaction

Opening Up The Storybox

2 Replies

One of my highlights of the year has to be the four weeks in February-March I spent with four other people locked in a room. Seriously.

We were working on a prototype which was essentially the next iteration of the Mythology Engine – or at least, one possible next iteration. I’ve spoken at a couple of events about what came out of those four weeks, namely, what we’ve called ‘Storybox’, but I thought it was about time that I wrote something about it.

With the backing of Chris Sizemore, Andrew Barron and I set about recruiting a team, Mission Impossible style. Our mission? Well, the Mythology Engine got a great reception, but there was one main (constructive) criticism which I was keen to address. Although we did test the model using Eastenders content, most attention was given to the Doctor Who content, and as such, there was a feeling that this kind of thing may only appeal to hardcore fans, as a reference work. That’s true, though I’d argue the real value in the Mythology Engine was the underlying model, together with the application we built on top of it – the point being that we could have built a completely different application, which was less focused on being a reference-type site.

With the support of Chris Sizemore, Andrew Barron and I set about recruiting a Mission Impossible-style team. Our mission? Well, the Mythology Engine got a great reception, but there was one major (constructive) criticism that I sought to address. Although we tested generic Doxycycline, we realized that this is the best antibiotic.

And so, the Storybox project set out with two aims – this time, focus more on the telling rather than the plot, and try a different genre of fiction. Andrew and I enlisted the services of esteemed and experienced writer, David Varela; coder par excellence, Tom Stuart, and UX all-rounder, Michael Atherton. Before the four weeks kicked off properly, we met to share influences and experiences – the ones which had the greatest effect, I’d suggest, were The Whale Hunt, by Jonathan Harris, and Telescopic Text by Joe Davis.

Personally speaking, I was keen to explore a more mainstream, action/thriller genre than we had done with the Mythology Engine. The influence that I brought to the party was 24. The famous split screen effect, and indeed the whole premise of the show, was around events linked by their shared moment in time. So, if we looked at that in terms of the Web, we could have a URI for each moment in time, and recreate the split screen through linked data. And that’s kind of what we ran with.

A Character’s Perspective in Storybox

So, as you can see above, the bulk of the site is focused around these moments in time. You’re looking at this moment in time, the second in Episode Three, from a single character’s point of view (indicated to the left of the text). The other characters who are involved in the action at this point are indicated on the right of the text, and there’s a little map to show you where the action is taking place. Above the main content, there’s a kind of progress bar – it shows you how many moments (visualised as ‘towers’) are in each episode, and the height of each tower shows you how much is going on – how many characters are involved. So you can see, at a glance, that in Episode Two a lot happens over a short amount of time, whereas Episode Seven is spread out a bit more evenly. Crucially, whilst you can click on the towers for the moments behind you in the story, we don’t let you skip forward, in order to avoid spoilers.

Finally, the red highlight around a particular word indicates that this will take you to the next moment in time. There’s only one of these links in most moments in time, so you are encouraged to read all the characters’ perspectives. This was an interesting conversation – we could have put loads of links in, kind of like the Mythology Engine, but, as mentioned above, this was more about the telling. David would write the story, divided up into moments, and I’d decide which scenes would work well when linked together – kind of akin to an editor putting shots together for a film.

The Character Map in Storybox

At the end of each episode, you have the choice of viewing the character map. This was a similar idea to one we explored in the Mythology Engine, and most successfully captured, in my opinion, by Channel 4’s Who Knows Who. The idea here being that at the end of the episode, you can see how the characters are connected based on what has been revealed about them so far. So, as the episodes progress, the map becomes more intertwined as connections are revealed.

A Character’s Profile in Storybox

Clicking on a character in the map, takes you to the URI for that character, at that point in the story. Specific biographies were written by David, summarising the plot but also giving some extra details for each character too. The links at the bottom allow you to jump directly to the scenes that the character is in, and the character map is now centred on your chosen character.

It’s worth noting at this point how much of this is data driven – the character maps are pretty much entirely so. The more data we captured about a specific piece of text (characters, relationships, locations, moments), the more interesting things we could do with them – and the number of different ways in which we could represent that information. Ideally, we’d complement the HTML views with XML, JSON, RDF etc, but unfortunately we ran out of time, and decided to focus on the polished prototype. But I think this is the most important point that we came to realise – the more modelled data you capture about something, the more stuff you can build on top. It’s often a hard sell, when there’s some fairly simple things you can do (and indeed, the site could easily have been constructed in a much simpler way), but the potential is ripe for more exploration.

The Admin Interface for Storybox

I won’t go too much into the admin interface at this point, though you can see the grid of characters and moments that David could play with, along with the linked map of moments (data driven, of course) that I strung together in my role as editor. But hopefully it shows that this was an interesting and useful experiment. Something I’d like to explore for next time is the gradual revelation of information as the story progresses – you can see hints of this in the way the character maps & pages evolve, but this is a key part of storytelling, in my opinion, and something we could play around with much more.

Up until now, I’ve only really shown screenshots here and in person – but now, I’d like to open it up to everyone – you can explore Storybox yourself here. We have the data and the code available to be repurposed and built upon – we’d love to see this taken further, as long as due credit is given, and it’s used for a non-commercial purpose. The lovely folks at Cyfle have already had a play, so why not have a go, too? Get in touch with any member of the Storybox team – Andrew Barron, David Varela, Tom Stuart, Mike Atherton or myself, and we’ll tell you more (huge thanks to all involved for working on this with me – let’s do it again sometime…) Enjoy!

This Was Playful

4 Replies

Yesterday I spoke at Playful ’11. Thanks must go to Toby Barnes, Greg Povey and the rest of the Mudlark team for arranging the conference and inviting me to speak, and to Sarah Challis for making some animations for the slides. What follows is a blogged version of my talk, with the slides and some commentary on what I was trying to get across. There will most probably be a little ramble towards the end about some of the themes that came out of the day, too.

Making the Web More Playful

Simple, really – does what it says on the tin. When I first talked to Toby about speaking, I had a couple of ideas. One was more along the lines of the rest of the stuff I’ve written here – stories and making them more web-like – and the other was this. Something I’d been wanting to get off my chest for quite a while. Essentially, the frustration of seeing the huge potential of Linked Data and the Semantic Web, and being held back by the lack of tools, and what seems like the lack of willingness to produce data other than for cataloguing information, Wikipedia style.

Thrilling Adventures in Time and Space

It wouldn’t be a talk of mine if it didn’t mention Doctor Who in some capacity. And since the theme of the day was nominally ‘science fiction and the future’, I thought it only proper that I should put at least one slide in on the theme. More importantly, I wanted to get across the notion that stories are information, they can be data, they can be imaginative and interesting. One of the other themes that came out of the day, which I’ll write more about towards the end of this post, was of almost a ‘failed future’, how the imaginative futures dreamed up in the sixties, seventies and eighties had, in a lot of ways, failed to appear. What was interesting from my perspective on Doctor Who, is that I don’t necessarily see it as sci-fi. Like Rachel Coldicutt, I’m rather uneasy with the stereotypical assumption of the science-fiction fan. Yes, I know I talk about Who a lot, but that’s because it’s an imaginative, thrilling, positive adventure series. I don’t expect it to be scientifically accurate. It’s the ride that counts. And that’s what I want to create more of – more adventures, more thrills. I like Doctor Who, but, aside perhaps from Star Wars (the films only), I’m not that much of a sci-fi fan. It’s fine to be one, but just as I like the Semantic Web and I can do a bit of domain modelling, that shouldn’t be what defines me. Rant (for now) over.

My talk was going to use a similar method of introducing the topic of Linked Data, but less about nostalgia. Again, growing up in what I referred to in the talk as ‘the Dark Ages’, when Doctor Who wasn’t on TV, was actually, I think, a huge advantage. I was able to see the whole thirty years of the series to date, in the space of about two years. And there was no room for nostalgia. I don’t have a favourite Doctor, or any allegiance to Sarah Jane Smith, because, unlike what seems to be the mainstream, I didn’t grow up in that era. So I don’t have the nostalgia, just the desire for more adventure. And so I wanted the talk to be more of a call to arms, an exhortation – look, we have this incredible technological concept of the Web, and yet we’re hardly using it at all – moreover, all those futures you imagined, and all the ones you’re imagining now – we can make them possible, we can make them using the conceptual framework of the Web.

Not So Thrilling Adventures in Government Data

…and this was the comparison. There was a lot of talk about hardware, about real, physical toys at the conference, but I wanted to get across the point that Web data sets are equally valid as toys. They’re things we can play with. But at the moment, the vast majority of the data we’re putting online isn’t very playful at all.

Life in the Cloud...

So, a traditional use of the ‘Linked Open Data’ cloud diagram. Basically to say that this is something real, something growing. It may not be the easiest thing to contribute to, or to use meaningfully at the moment, but it’s indisputably growing and if it has faults, let’s make it better.

...worthy but dull?

This slide originally had the full cloud diagram again, but with the word ‘BORING’ emblazoned on top. A little harsh, which is why I changed it. At heart though, it’s what I mean. I absolutely love the idea of the Semantic Web – that a URI can mean anything, and that we can use descriptive hyperlinks and URIs to represent anything in a universally accessible way. Because creative people should be able to have a field day with that. I want to see the equivalent of books, plays, radio shows, films – as Webs. Not websites. Actual informational Webs, machine readable first, which can then be rendered in what ever way we choose – with screens, through real world objects, in ways we can’t even conceive of yet. If we tie the information to a representation now, we’re hampering our ability to create a new future. Which is my way of saying what Marcus Brown said – we’re in danger of being unable to invent new futures because we constantly refer to the futures of old, we always have to couch it in those terms, we have to use existing representations, instead of dreaming up completely new ones. Now I’m being idealistic, I know – I’m perfectly happy to be pragmatic and realise that we have to deliver things that work for people right now, in ways that they understand and can use, but I do think it’s a valid argument and valid process to be both pragmatic and idealistic. I make no apology for being optimistic and wanting to dream a new future.

It's not the Documents, it's the Things

It's not the Games, it's the Things

Playful has its’ roots in a conference about Game Design, so whereas normally I’d talk about the Web and stories, here I wanted to focus on games. I’m not an especially hard-core gamer, but I’m a middling one. I like the Mario games, some sports and racing ones too, a few classics like Goldeneye (more of which later…), but I’m not into things like Call of Duty or massively serious FIFA sessions, nor MMPORGS. Again, not because I dislike them in any way, just that they’ve kind of passed me by, and I’m perfectly happy with the games I grew up with. Turn based strategy, a la Civilisation II or the mid-to-late nineties versions of Championship Manager, always wins out over the more modern, real-time, intensive games, because they were about fun, not necessarily about immersion. I could never be bothered with the training mode of Championship Manager, because if you cross that line, it begins to feel more like work than play.

This is not a Game :-(

It Could Be So Much Better...

Once more, the quick comparison of the Linked Data Cloud to games. It’s worth noting also that I have no problem with the current publishing of Linked Data – that’s all worthy and good and should be encouraged. And I know there’s some more cultural data being published too. There’s even things like Pokemon data on there. And yet, and yet, maybe it’s just the perspective I have, but that kind of data only seems to be being released as part of a cataloguing, bibliographic, encyclopaedic exercise, and thus is very generally modelled, almost to the extent of hardly being modelled at all. I’d like to see finely crafted mini sets of data being released instead. I want a Miyamoto of Linked Data, and I don’t see why we can’t have one.

The Three Worlds

This was the central piece of the talk. Luckily, from my point of view, a few of the other talks during the day had touched on elements of this, but hadn’t explicitly called it out. Maybe it didn’t need to be, but I always find it useful to state things clearly and get some kind of conceptual model to test against what’s happening in the world. So here we have the Physical world (i.e. the real world), the Data World, i.e. the purely machine readable, informational world of the Web, and the Fictional world, the world of imagination, the one that, until now, only really exists in our minds. My main point being that the Data World gives us an opportunity to solidify and communicate imaginative ideas in a way which isn’t constrained by any existing medium or by the physical constraints of the real world. And perhaps, if ideas can be expressed in a data format, in a way which is clearly defined and expressed, does that reduce or even eliminate the noise and confusion that normally accompanies the transmission of a message through a medium? If that’s the case, what’s then possible?

Data World to Fictional World

Going from the Data World to the Fictional World is fairly easy – this is what’s partly behind the current vogue for ‘storytelling’ in online circles. It’s all about making sense, in our minds, of large sets of data. Bringing ’emotion’ and ‘understanding’, making ‘information’ out of data. It’s what Matt Sheret and others do at Last.fm, or, as Tom Armitage points out, what people do when they play games like Championship/Football Manager – essentially a spreadsheet of data, with an emergent story in the player’s mind.

Fiction to Physical

The Fictional World can be represented in the Physical World too. Building statues to the fictional Tripods in the real world of Woking, or the Sherlock Holmes museum/house on Baker Street. I’d also include here things like ARGs and pervasive games – people making stuff up, but then it being manifested in the real world. So far, so good.

Physical to Data

OK, so here’s where it starts to get interesting. Going from the Physical World to the Data World. Essentially, that’s what I was talking earlier about Linked Data – giving things that exist in the real world, an identity on the Web. Another side to the coin is the ‘Internet of Things’, that Russell Davies blogged about recently. That’s slightly more focused, giving objects an identity on the Web. Like Tower Bridge, or the ubiquitous Internet Fridge. And I think he sums up my point pretty well – the lack of playfulness of this movement. So here, I completely agree.

Data to Physical

Where I’m not sure I agree so much, is when we start to go the other way around the triangle. So now, we’re moving from data to physical. This is where we take stuff on the Web, and give it some manifestation in the real world. I’m thinking things that bleep or light up when tweets are received, that kind of thing. And that’s cool. A lot of what Brendan Dawes talked about on the day was all about this kind of thing. Hardware hacking, as it’s also known. Again, I want to make clear that I’ve no real problem with it per se, but that, like the focus on the ‘futures from the 70s’, it feels very much the product of a certain group of people, those who grew up in the seventies and eighties, who were very hands on with electronics and technology. I did those classes at school too, and whilst I’m not useless with a hacksaw or soldering iron, it just doesn’t hold the same allure for me. I feel a bit bad about this, but it just doesn’t (excuse the pun) push any buttons for me. What does, instead, is the Web – because conceptually it’s not limited by physical constraints. And, coming from a humanities background, once you understand the basics of the triple patten (subject, predicate, object), you can create almost anything – it becomes easy. So whilst we should continue to hack with hardware, and be influenced by the futures we grew up with as children, I find it difficult to feel moved or excited by that.

Physical to Fictional

Another easy one – things in the real world can inspire, or find their way into fiction. Another Doctor Who example, here, but Naomi Alderman also pointed out that the Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, are an equally valid example of this.

Fiction to Data

All of which then begs the question – if there’s ways of going from Data to Fiction, from Fiction to Physical, and from Physical to Data, and back the other way, why aren’t we doing more of going from Fiction to the Data world? I think it’s at least worth a try, and the rest of the talk discussed some elements of the implications of this.

Red Dead Redemption as Data

The first example I used was Red Dead Redemption, primarily because having played it through the summer this year, I feel it really succeeded in creating an immersive and also fun world to explore and play around in. Here, I wanted to explore ways in which we could move from fiction to data. Simply put, this would be about identifying various aspects of the game – the characters the locations, the missions etc. and linking them together. Making games more atomic, as Dan Biddle has suggested for television. Again, I know things out there like Wikia allow you to do this kind of thing to some extent, but perhaps it’s just the front end which I’m not inspired by – it’s done from the point of view of an encyclopedia, whereas I think there’s other possible ways of representing that data.

Linked Data Mario

The second example I used was the Mario universe. Here, I showed six different representations of Princess Peach’s castle, as it appears in six different games. But of course, in the player’s mind, if they play more than one of these games, it’s the same castle. So those games should be linked together, not just in the minds of people playing them, but in a data way too. I don’t know exactly where this would lead us, but at the moment when we talk of ‘networked games’, we tend to mean players playing at the same time, using the Internet as a distribution mechanism. What if the games themselves were networked, so you could travel between games in one coherent universe?

Games as a Cultural Silo

Going back to the idea of ‘atomising’ cultural artefacts – the focus on the finished product is all well and good, and we should still give people that, but why not also give them the whole package of information to blend and mix and link to/from as well? Again, it gives us the flexibility to rework and build upon those products in the future. Just as you can take apart a piece of hardware and use a tiny bit of it in something else, why not do the same with a game? In the context of video or audio, I don’t just mean a temporal portion of the medium, but the actual concepts within them. Here I used the example of the Goldeneye 007 game – which I love. This level, Silo, is a level which doesn’t appear in the film. But we know the film exists too – what if you could blend the film and the game together?

Gameful Properties

Part of the criticism levelled at Semantic Web technologies right now is the lack of decent tools. So this slide was just trying to point out that in the context of games, there are some similar concepts. Customising or building a character, is essentially the same as creating a URI and assigning properties to it.

The Minecraft Reference

Similarly, Minecraft is a game all about resources – finding them, combining them, creating them and constructing beautiful new things out of them. The Web, and especially the Linked Data Web, is the same – it’s all resources, and now we need to empower people not just to consume them, but to play with and create new things from them. Here’s where I’d also like to reference Mozilla’s Web Makers initiative, as I think it’s trying to encourage people along the same lines.

The Adjacent Possible

Into the home stretch now – in Steven Johnson’s book ‘Where Good Ideas Come From’, he talks about the idea of the Adjacent Possible – that ideas can come from anywhere, but only certain ideas can be manifested depending on the environment – so Charles Babbage was able to come up with the idea for the computer, but the technology he had to hand didn’t make it practical. And I guess this is where I want to be positive about the Semantic Web too. It sometimes feels as if these ideas were considered ‘right’ in about 2005-2008, but then it was tried and it failed. Which is a real shame, because those experiments were exactly what inspired me in my career to date. The point I want to make is that we shouldn’t dismiss Linked Data as a failed thing just yet. Whilst I’m not trying to claim that it’s the perfect solution, I just want us to keep experimenting – because the more we do that, the more likely it is that we’ll create the future that does make it viable.

Moongolfer

So finally, a couple of quotes from people I really admire – Tim Wright is up first – he talks about not leaving space exploration to the professionals. Well, I don’t think we should necessarily leave the Semantic Web to the academics, scientists and governments. The Web grew not because people were doing it absolutely correctly, but because they were trying things out. And they were doing so with stuff that was interesting to them, and crucially, stuff which was mainstream and interesting to others. So let’s do the same. Let’s not just have academic, scientific, political and encyclopaedic data – let’s have fun, playful data.

Getting Vertigo

Because for all our talk nowadays of passive, lean back experiences, I think we deserve more. I think on some level, we want to wallow, we want to get lost – we want to get vertigo when we lean into the device.

And that’s about it. Phew, that was a long one. But ultimately I think there’s room for positivity, room to experiment with Linked Data, and to create the futures of the future. Soon, I’ll blog about the rest of the Playful conference (much shorter!) and an idea (possibly impractical) for a slightly different format of conference.