Urblove is a ‘do-tank’ project sponsored by the MEDEA Collaborative media initiative and developed by Ozma Speldesigns; a pair of game and web developers, Karin Ryding and Bobbi Bobbi Augustine Sand, and based in Malmo Sweden. The project is also supported by Vinnova which funds innovation in the service of ‘sustainable growth’.
Urblove is both a service for the production and staging of location based mobile games and an online community where these games are distirbuted. Urblove provides for users to create their own games and to share their experience in playing them. The project hopes to encourage a sense of urban exploration in the service of creating a more integrated tolerant urban environment.
The project is being developed in collaboration with researchers Pers-Anders Hillgren and Per Linde (Interaction Design) and Karin Brook (Cultural Geography). The project is also developed in cooperation with wireless provider WIP and two community youth organisations RGRA and Tosabidarna. RGRA is a group interested in engaging youth in issues of national and global importance while Tosabidarna is a group supporting female Skaters.
While the project is in the early stages of development it is particularly interesting for its mix of start-up, community support, corporate cooperation, and institutional support.