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Craftopolis: blending tangible, informal construction into virtual multiuser communities

Published: 09 June 2010 Publication History

Abstract

The last decade has seen a blossoming of creative online activities for children in which groups, or communities, of youngsters participate within (e.g.) multiplayer games, social networks, shared programming environments, and so forth. Despite the marvelous features of these environments, they all share the limitation of being exclusively "virtual" in their design: children can play in virtual worlds, create virtual buildings and farms, or design programs, but they cannot experiment or create with tangible materials in these activities. In this paper, we present a prototype of a shared online children's "world" in which the basic elements are tangible, informal, "rooms" or constructions that can be controlled computationally and accessed over the World Wide Web. This system, Craftopolis, enables users to make their own computationally-enriched physical models (e.g., of dollhouse rooms, dioramas, game boards, and so forth), using any materials whatever, and to link those rooms into a shared online space.

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Cited By

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  • (2023)Play—An essential part of children’s lives and their computational empowermentFrontiers in Education10.3389/feduc.2022.10887167Online publication date: 21-Feb-2023
  • (2019)Design and evaluation of graphical feedback on tangible interactions in a low-resolution edge displayProceedings of the 8th ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays10.1145/3321335.3324954(1-7)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2019
  • (2017)Extending the Design Space of Tangible Objects via Low-Resolution Edge DisplaysProceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/3024969.3025078(481-488)Online publication date: 20-Mar-2017
  • Show More Cited By

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  1. Craftopolis: blending tangible, informal construction into virtual multiuser communities

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    cover image ACM Other conferences
    IDC '10: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children
    June 2010
    389 pages
    ISBN:9781605589510
    DOI:10.1145/1810543
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    • Spanish Ministry of Education and Science

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    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 09 June 2010

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    Author Tags

    1. Craftopolis
    2. children's crafts
    3. multiuser environments
    4. tangible interaction

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    Overall Acceptance Rate 172 of 578 submissions, 30%

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    Cited By

    View all
    • (2023)Play—An essential part of children’s lives and their computational empowermentFrontiers in Education10.3389/feduc.2022.10887167Online publication date: 21-Feb-2023
    • (2019)Design and evaluation of graphical feedback on tangible interactions in a low-resolution edge displayProceedings of the 8th ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays10.1145/3321335.3324954(1-7)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2019
    • (2017)Extending the Design Space of Tangible Objects via Low-Resolution Edge DisplaysProceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/3024969.3025078(481-488)Online publication date: 20-Mar-2017
    • (2014)Creating communities: the use of technology in craft and DIY communities of practiceJournal of Systems and Information Technology10.1108/JSIT-05-2013-001816:4(277-295)Online publication date: 4-Nov-2014
    • (2014)Hybrid craftingPersonal and Ubiquitous Computing10.1007/s00779-013-0684-918:3(593-611)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2014
    • (2013)Child–computer interactionInternational Journal of Child-Computer Interaction10.1016/j.ijcci.2012.09.0011:1(2-6)Online publication date: Jan-2013
    • (2012)Empowerment through designProceedings of the 11th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children10.1145/2307096.2307163(343-346)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2012
    • (2012)Material pets, virtual spaces, isolated designersProceedings of the 11th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children10.1145/2307096.2307136(244-247)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2012

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