This is a stub of a post. I’ll come back and add more detail later, but I wanted to get it out there pre-#BelshawBlackOps13. When I say ‘badge’ I am, of course, talking about Open Badges.
Just as we have the established idea of a Minimum Viable Product (and riffing on Minimum Viable Bureaucracy) how about a Minimum Viable Badge?*
A Minimum Viable Product has just those features that allow the product to be deployed, and no more. The product is typically deployed to a subset of possible customers, such as early adopters that are thought to be more forgiving, more likely to give feedback, and able to grasp a product vision from an early prototype or marketing information. It is a strategy targeted at avoiding building products that customers do not want, that seeks to maximize the information learned about the customer per dollar spent.
So a Minimum Viable Badge would be the first badge in an emergent ecosystem of value. A stake in the ground, as it were; line in the sand. It’s the opposite of trying to satisfy upfront all of the requirements and concerns of ‘stakeholders’. It’s a recognition that the first thing you produce is something to talk about, iterate and (probably) jettison. It’s a conversation-starter.
Yesterday, at the Prototyping activities for the Web Literacy Standard session at MozFest we did something fairly close to this. And it was glorious.
Does this resonate as an idea?
*This may or may not be a term that I’ve (inadvertently) ‘borrowed’ from a Mozilla colleague or community member. If so, er, oops.
It’s the Mozilla Festival this weekend. Below is where you can find me and the schedule is here.
Friday
18:00-20:00 – Science Fair (Level 4)
Saturday
(Level 7)
11:00-12:00 – Open Badges & Web Literacy Standard 101 (short presentations repeated a few times)
13:00-14:30 – Prototyping Web Literacy Standard activities
Sunday
11:00-12:00 – Open Badges & Web Literacy Standard FAQ (Level 7) (short presentations repeated a few times)
16:00-17:00 – Cross platform badging and identity for Citizen Science projects (Level 2)
If you’re at MozFest, then please do come and say hello! If you’re not, you should participate remotely.
I can remember when I went to my first Mozilla Festival (MozFest) back in in 2011. I wasn’t working for Mozilla at the time so I was just blown away by how awesome it was. They’re the most positive events I’ve ever been to; there’s so much energy in the building! On top of that, the event was (and still is) about working in the open and about putting the Mozilla Manifesto into action. 🙂
Registration for MozFest 2013 is now open. It’s at Ravensbourne College in Greenwich, London (opposite the O2 arena) between Friday 25th and Sunday 27th October 2013. Early bird tickets for adults are only £40 and for youths it’s a mere £3.
You should come. You should encourage other people to come along with you. You should shout it from the rooftops. But more than that: you should propose a session. I’m certainly planning to – but you don’t need to work for Mozilla to do so. Oh no. As long as participatory, purposeful and productive, anyone can run a session at MozFest!
I look forward to seeing you there. Grab your ticket now!
