Introducing Biba!

UPDATE: Due to differences over the design and development of Biba, Paige Johnson (author of Playscapes) is no longer associated with the project, effective April 7, 2012. 

It’s rare that ‘electronic games’ and ’outdoor play’ enter the same conversation, except as rhetorical enemies.  So I’m really excited to be part of a team working to make them playground friends.  Funding from the Canadian government has enabled us to fast-track a prototype, and these pictures are from our first live playground test, just last week!  So exciting.  (don't worry, it will be tested with girls, too)

It’s the culmination, for me, of an early awareness that no matter how much I promoted great playgrounds, they would always only be available to relatively few kids.  And how do you improve the play experience of more children, more places?  If they have a poorly designed playground or a broken down slide, or a littered vacant lot and no prospect of changing that?  Virtual space…virtual playground space.  Social, heads-up play aided and abetted by mobile devices.  That’s the goal of what has been christened ‘Biba’…it re-imagines the admonition to ‘turn off that game, go outside and play’, to ‘take that game and go outside and play!’   We’re committed to deeply involving children in the design process, enabling physical activity, sociability and different play styles, and creating a heads-up game environment where the virtual world is secondary to the real one, not the other way around.

There will be lots more news as we move forward, but for now, if you have kids ages 6-14, please pop by this survey link and answer a few short questions about their use (or lack thereof) of mobile devices.  And how you might feel about them playing with your expensive smart phone…


UPDATE:  Due to differences over the design and development of Biba, Paige Johnson is no longer associated with the project, effective April 7, 2012.