First of all, welcome everyone! And that said, let's get this started with some preemptive FAQ.

Who are you?

As you probably already know from my posts in your communities, my name is Luca Morini, and I am an Italian Ph.D. Student in Education and Communication, with a background in systems psychology. Beside that (and most importantly) I am an omnivorous geek since ever, and I am deeply convinced that playing, and in general being playful, is, by a long shot, the first and foremost form of learning.

Why did you post this in our place?

Game related communities are not schools, but there is so much learning in playing games of any kind, in discussing them, and, most of all, in changing and making them. Learning the creative act of modifying or making a game (be it digital or "analog") is tantamount to creating a small, possible world, and, while often involving very complex matter, is something you informally share as equals coming from all around the globe, promoting participation,creativity and diversity. Most of all, promoting fun.

To encourage and foster "world making" is something that "serious" educational institutions desperately and urgently need to learn, not to make for better "edutainment" or "gamification", but to rethink the roots of education itself in an ever more connected world.

That's why I feel it is my duty, as a player, as a researcher and as an educator, to try to "map" this playful, shared creativity and build a common, publicly accessible resource for our (quite different) communities but also for other educators, and everyone interested in promoting a more playful world.

And how are you supposed to do that?

This is where this blog, and most importantly you, come into play. During my explorations I encountered lots of interesting stuff and people. I feel that this is a story that deserves to be told. So yeah, I am going to use this blog as a kind of research diary, but not one that is only mine. I'd love everyone who might be interested in this to comment and intervene. I "kickstarted" this by trying to further network your communities by showing each other your frankly awesome work. It's indeed my way of saying "Designers Assemble!", to spread the art and science of co-operative world-making. 

And I do not intend to cater only to the professional. If you are an "amateur" it doesn't mean you lack skill, it just means you really, really love what you do. Well, I love what you do.

I built this wiki , which as of now contains only the "list" that I posted (and the sites where I posted it), to allow public, site-neutral discussion and expansion of the list itslef, but also the posting of anything you might consider related or useful, of course starting from your own experiences within the communities but also including articles, links, images, games, songs, movies, whatever. In a word, brainstorming. That's why I called this "Atlas", because we can go beyond linear text and collect lots of different "maps" of what participatory game design is or could be. All of them useful precisely because they are different. And then, maybe, we could think together of a way to organize them.

So, shall we play?