Metaphors are powerful things. They can help people understand new concepts, and they can also help stretch our thinking about the art of the possible.

In this post, I want to use Sim City 2000, one of my favourite childhood video games, as a metaphor for Open Recognition. For those who may be unfamiliar, Sim City 2000 was a popular city-building simulation game released in 1994. In the game, players act as mayors of their own virtual cities, managing everything from zoning laws to infrastructure development.

You may be wondering how Open Recognition (and Open Badges) is like building your own city? Here are some reasons.

Infrastructure

Cities need a strong infrastructure to be able to function properly. So do recognition ecosystems. Open Recognition is all about creating a system that allows individuals to earn and display recognition for their skills, knowledge, and achievements. Fortunately, we have the ever-evolving Open Badges specification which supports the creation, sharing, and validation of recognition in a way that is open and interoperable.

You can imagine Open Badges as the roads, bridges, and buildings that make up the infrastructure of a city. They provide a way for individuals to earn recognition and for this recognition to be displayed and shared across different platforms and contexts.

Sadly, real-life cities have often been designed by a certain subset of the general population and, as books such as Invisible Women point out, this can be hugely problematic. So too with recognition — how can we recognise people in all of our diversity?

Resources

When playing Sim City 2000, it’s important to balance the needs of citizens with the resources you have available. Too many people, not enough power stations? Uh-oh. (Weirdly, I was always obsessed about getting enough water to everyone, but that’s a story for another post!)

When building Open Recognition ecosystems, we need to balance the needs of individuals, organisations, and the Community of Practice in which they interact. We need to ensure that recognition is meaningful and valuable to individuals, that it meets the needs of organisations, and that it aligns with the broader goals of the community.

Zoning

In Sim City 2000 players must define different areas as ‘zones’ — for example, residential, commercial and industrial zones. This helps to create a balanced and sustainable city. Too much of one thing can spell disaster!

Similarly, with Open Recognition, we need to create different zones or categories of recognition. This can include recognition for formal learning, informal learning, and experiential learning. Instead of people’s LinkedIn profiles being just a list of formal qualifications and where they’ve worked, we can recognise people in all of their wonderful complexity.

Evolution

Players in Sim City 2000 must constantly adapt and evolve their cities to meet changing needs and challenges. One of my favourite things to do was to initiate a ‘disaster’ to see if my city could handle a UFO attack, nuclear meltdown, or a rampaging Godzilla.

It is a rare individual, organisation, or community that doesn’t at some point face some kind of crisis. Keeping up-to-date with a world beyond microcredentials is important as new technologies, standards, and practices emerge. This helps with adaptability and resilience, allowing us to find new ways to recognise learners.

There are so many other ways to take this metaphor. But there are also points of deviation. For example, a key part of Sim City 2000 is that you play in ‘god mode’ where you can do whatever you want and hang the consequences. In real life, we have ‘town hall’ meetings where, to get back to the metaphor, recognition can be co-designed with the people we want to recognise.

Just like in Sim City 2000, it takes careful planning, thoughtful design, and ongoing adaptation to create a thriving ecosystem of recognition. So let’s roll up our sleeves and get building!

Interested in helping foster an ecosystem of Open Recognition? Come join the KBW community or get in touch!

Screenshots from the excellent Sim City 2000 Helicopter Bot