OpenPool: Community-based prototyping of digitally-augmented billiard table

This paper describes our experience of prototyping OpenPool (http://openpool.cc/), a system that digitally augments a billiard table with audio and visual effects. Our observation on its growth as an open-source project revealed that entertainment system can be a good platform for open collaboration among people with diverse backgrounds. In this paper, we explain the brief overview of OpenPool, investigate how it has engaged many people to achieve successful collaboration, and characterize its development process named “community-based prototyping.”