The potential of Chirp.io to send Open Badges between people and devices
Back in 2012 I remember coming across an ingenious service for sending data between mobile devices using sound. I promptly forgot about it until recently when I re-discovered Chirp.io.
There’s existing apps for Android and iOS, along with a Google Chrome extension. It’s great for things like:
- quickly sharing a photo with a friend
- sharing contact details
- sending a link to a class set of 1:1 devices.
Chirp is kind of a like a super-simple version of an overly-engineered protocol such as Bluetooth.
During my lunch break today, after a brief exchange on Twitter, I went along and met Patrick (the founder) and Richard (CEO) to pitch Open Badges to them. It seems like such a great fit: issuing badges using a chirp!
They were excited about the idea and want to explore it further so I’m using this post as a reference to point people towards. There’s an SDK for Chirp, they’re about to launch a web-native version, and if you join their crowdfunding campaign (as I’ve done) you get an equity stake in the company!
I’m closing comments here to discuss the potential of Chirp and badges in the Open Badges Google Group. Join in the conversation!
Image CC BY-ND Bryan Mathers
