When we decided to soft launch the Badge Alliance at the Summit to Reconnect Learning, my Communications Director had about 5 days notice to pull everything together. She did, of course, pull everything together as she always does, but there was definitely some throwing 'good enough for now' words up on a site at the last minute. As we are starting to more formally kick off some branding work, we went back to the tagline we used. While it might not be where we end up, there was and is a lot of truth in those words, and there are layers that really get to the heart of what we're trying to do (and I suppose, what we're now on the hook for doing!)
The Badge Alliance is "a network of organizations working together to build and advance an open badging ecosystem"
Let's break that down a bit...
"The Badge Alliance is a network of organizations..."
The Badge Alliance is made up of organizations that want to work on these issues together, want badges to succeed, believe in a similar vision. These organizations (and in some cases, individuals) are volunteering to contribute to working groups, to roll up their sleeves and do the work necessary to move the badging work forward. They are the lifeblood of the Alliance, and of the ecosystem we are building.
After a relatively low profile soft launch, we already have close to 300 organizations that have not only expressed interest in the Badge Alliance, but have signed up to participate in at least one working group. In many cases, they have signed up for several. The initial response has blown me away and I am more convinced than ever that the Alliance is so important and timely.
One of the reasons we have created the Badge Alliance is that this work is so much bigger than any individual organization. It's going to take a village. It's going to take an ecosystem. That means non-profits, tech providers, agencies, institutions, schools, corporations, foundations have a role to play. It's only through connection and collaboration across these organizations and sectors, that we will make significant progress for learners and workers across their lifetimes.
As I mentioned before, we're pretty serious about the collaboration part. So much so that the Badge Alliance is completely built around working groups. All of the work is/will be done through working groups. All of the key issues are tackled through working groups. Most of our job will be to facilitate, recruit for and shepherd working groups. Working groups, working groups, working groups! We're all probably going to start getting so sick of hearing those words, we'll have to make up some others. Constellations! Action teams! Etc. But for now, working groups.
It's a super exciting approach with lots of potential. We've already got a really healthy mix of organizations that seem energized and ready to dig in. But its also a little scary. I've always been of the 'if it needs doing, I'll just do it" mentality, but now our role will to wrangle, recruit and ultimately rely on lots of different players to move the ball forward. Again, together is the only way we succeed. We've been spending the last couple of weeks trying to create some guidelines and process to create a layer of accountability and confidence in working group outcomes, which we'll share in the next week or so, but really these are working theories. This is going to be a constant work in progress, with payoffs so much bigger than any of us could accomplish on our own.
"...to build and advance..." (Or "...to build and grow...")
This is a pretty heavy piece. Building and advancing. What does that mean? Where do we start? What does success or advancement or sufficient growth look like? One deliverable that we are on the hook for, with our Steering Committee, is an initial definition of umbrella goals, strategy and metrics for the badge ecosystem, that we will then vet with the broader network. This will help to provide a larger context for all of your work, while also connecting work across the ecosystem, highlighting gaps or new opportunities to put some attention into and giving us all way to determine if we are winning.
But we don't need that, and frankly, can't wait for that to keep the momentum going. Each of you can probably list a few things that you think are needed to advance the broader badge work, or maybe even your own badge systems. Issues that need tackling, hurdles that are in the way, use cases you need to see, questions you need answered...I guarantee if you all did write them down, there would be a lot of overlap. And I can also guarantee that we've probably been talking about many of them since very early on. So let's stop talking and dig in. That's the purpose of a working group. Let's pick one of these key issues and work together on it. Let's set concrete goals and divide and conquer.
With our soft launch of the Badge Alliance, we tried to capture what to us felt like some of the most critical issues/topics through the initial working groups:
Open Badges Standard - shaping the evolution of the open standard for badges
Endorsement - how to build functionality and practice around third party endorsement of badges
Cities & Network-wide Badge Systems - how to support network level badging systems
Badges Messaging - how we talk consistently and effectively about badges to different audiences
Globalization, Localization & Badge the World - how to encourage and support badging in other countries and cultures
Web Literacy & Digital Literacy Badges - a shared badge system(s) for promoting and recognizing important digital skills
Badges for Admission to Higher Education - how to get badges into the admissions evaluation process
Recruiting Next Generation Workforce & Acceptance by Employers - linking badges to jobs, internships, career advancement and other opportunities
Badges for Educators & Professional Development - granularrecognition for teachers and educators
This initial set of working groups isn't comprehensive, of course, but reflects where we and the broader community sense some the biggest urgency or heat. It's a healthy mix of driving adoption on the issuing side, while also really starting to dig in on the 'consumption' or currency side of the ecosystem as well. We already have begun to identify a fast follow set of working groups that will most likely include things like research, validation (although this one is too big for one working group), K12/schools (also too big), pathways and privacy/data.
(you can still participate in these working groups - visit http://badgealliance.org to sign up. You can also suggest additional topics/working groups you think should be represented)
"...an open badging ecosystem..."
Oh you thought the last part was heavy? Wait for this one! :)
An open badging ecosystem. I could write several blog posts on the meaning/importance of that phrase, probably at least one post on each one of those words (the one on "an" would be a page turner ;)).
But while we *could* (and I am sure at some point *will*) get existential and philosophical, this doesn't have to be that complex. If we agree that ultimately this is about recognizing and connecting learning of many (and of more) kinds across contexts and across lifetimes, and leveraging that recognition to better connect people to jobs, additional learning, personal growth, advancement, social connections and more, then there are some pretty obvious and important lines in the sand, but only a few. Two actually.
1) Badges must be interoperable. In this case, that means badges must align with the open standard, which is the 'information model' for badges.
2) Earners must own their badges and have control over where they are stored, how they are shared, etc.
That's it really. If we all agree on those two points, then we have the makings for a healthy ecosystem. If badges are interoperable, then they are stackable, we can ensure we have enough information for making sense of them and we can always build tools and processes on top of them to better issue, manage, understand, etc. And if earners are in control, then badges cannot get 'stuck' in a silo and we can continually build in more connections and opportunities for that badge earner. The work doesn't stop with these two 'principles', but these are the minimum required to ensure that the ecosystem can grow up around the badges in a way that places the learner at the center.
We haven't gotten so far as to finalize a manifesto or formalize any requirements for membership, but I can't imagine these two NOT being in there in some shape or form. We'll be co-creating these types of things with our Steering Committee and Alliance members, so obviously much more to come here.
So...we didn't do so bad with our first tagline. There's a lot in here, maybe some of it is controversial. Certainly some of it I intend to dive into much more deeply in subsequent blog posts. But don't wait for that - I'm definitely interested in getting feedback and hearing more from you on these somewhat rambling thoughts. Where do you agree? Where do you disagree? What are other working group priorities? What does open ecosystem mean to you? What other names for working groups should we use? :) This is a pretty critical juncture in the Badge Alliance and the overall work so now's the time to weigh in!
And don't forget, another way to get involved is to participate in one or more of the working groups. You can sign up on the site http://badgealliance.org
