This site has launched! You may see a blank screen after submitting a comment, though it still went through okay. Trying to sort that out.

A small room full of Legos and other toys should be fun in itself, but I bet we can make it more interesting. Should we add challenges to build specific objects or structures? Contests for the best creations? We'll be adding a Flickr feed here to share all photos tagged with interactive playpen or iaplaypen. Perhaps the SXSW community at large could judge photos of creations uploaded there?

If you have ideas to share or would like to suggest your favorite modular toy, leave us a comment!

For a couple of years I had this idea in the back of my head that it would be fun to put a bunch of web geeks in a room full of geek toys. At some point during the Bruce Sterling party that concluded SXSW Interactive '05, a group of us discovered a basket of Zoobs on a table upstairs, and we entertained ourselves for a while. We had fun discovering the limitations of the toys, inventing problems and solving them, and collaborating on creations.

It's in this vein that we announce the Interactive Playpen. We're quarantining off a small area on the first floor of the Austin Convention center and filling it with Legos and other kinds of modular toys. When panels are too crowded or you're just looking to get creative and make new friends, swing by the Playpen. Build something no one else would think of.

We'll post more information here as things develop.