Thinking linking – Sembl data
Because Sembl will be a system for generating data, I’ve been worrying about how we can ensure that the data it generates is well-structured so that it is machine-readable and thereby linked to other...
View ArticleThe secret to Sembl – prep for players and game instigators
The Sembl prototype will soon be playable! Here, Cath introduces the concept at the core of the game, as a prelude to an online tutorial for teachers.
View ArticleSources for Sembl Web
I love what Mitchell Whitelaw calls a generous interface. The traditional search box gateway to a collection is reticent, even officious, begrudging you for your lack of familiarity with the goods. By...
View ArticleA dialogic order of knowledge
This post is a provocation, triggered by Mike Bergman‘s clear and interesting talk on the semantic web in use. It follows some earlier, fuzzier thinking of my own on Sembl and linked data. I now...
View ArticleOn group size and complexity
Sembl works for lots of different sized groups. We reckon that playing in a team of two to four is ideal. Any fewer and the ideas might not flow freely; any more and you might have too little time with...
View ArticleTypographic design
What fonts to use for the name of the game, and in it? I *love* this Hoefler & Frere-Jones’ typeface, Archer. Look at that ‘C’! What a lovely game name/heading Archer Book would make: gorgeously...
View ArticleJunior playtest redux
Yesterday the group of kids who played Sembl on paper last September returned to the Museum to play the prototype game *on iPad*. Cath reports on their response.
View ArticleSketching data structure & interface
Thinking about how in Sembl, the lines that connect things are not lines but, actually, circuits – because they are always already mutual, originating from and applying equally to both things – I...
View ArticleLines become thought-space
More thoughts on interface design… and fun with animated GIFs :) Imagine that you’re looking at a large, complex network of connected nodes. As you hover over any line between two nodes, it draws the...
View ArticleSembl, the game of resemblance: presentation to NDF2012
This post is a web translation of my presentation to the National Digital Forum, Wellington, NZ, on 20 November 2012. (Video recording is here.) Hello, people. Thank you for having me on this land and...
View ArticleThe Story of Sembl, I: Herman Hesse’s Glass Bead Game
[ first post in a series on the inspirations and developments that led to Sembl, and the aspirations that flow from them ] . Hermann Hesse is just about due for a revival. While other novelists on the...
View ArticleSembl for GLAMs
Over the last couple of months I’ve been asking myself: how can Sembl help galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs) do what they do, better? Actually, I’ve been asking myself the same...
View ArticleTorus and lotus
Last year I posted about the gameboard designs we’re using in the Museum form of Sembl. On those boards, each team starts with their own seed node – so on the hex board there are a whopping six nodes...
View ArticleCultivating conceptual propinquity
Dialogic thinking doesn’t only mean taking into account two different perspectives; it also means recognising the common ground between entities – what it is that makes them one. This post is a note...
View Article18 years, and what a difference!
Eighteen years ago, in 1996, we used to play HipBone Games by email (“PBEM”). The boards were literally typed out in ASCII characters — to give you the idea, here’s the WaterBird Board as we played on...
View ArticleOn the felicities of graph-based game-board design: preliminaries
[ cross-posted from Zenpundit — on graph theory, and the background and history of HipBone / Sembl gameboards ] . First off, a graph — at least the way I’m using it here — is a diagram of linkages. The...
View ArticleOn the felicities of graph-based game-board design: two dazzlers
[ cross-posted from Zenpundit — completing a post that began with On the felicities of graph-based game-board design: preliminaries ] . Having shown you a variety of (node-and-edge) graphs in the...
View ArticleOn access and use –> cultural material and Sembl
A sample of images already in the Sembl system, and some notes on openness, of both cultural heritage material and of Sembl. In selecting seed material for Sembl, I look in collections that are: openly...
View ArticleA game for 12
This post falls into the category of should-have-blogged-earlier. I designed a board for 12 players. It’s not one for the faint-hearted. This game has four rounds rather than the usual three, and...
View ArticleLogo a go-go
The Sembl logo has been evolving for quite some time now but I feel it has finally settled. What do you reckon?
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