Badge Alliance FAQ - July 2015
Thereâs so much we want to say -- we canât put it all into an over-long announcement. Here is a growing list of some of the top questions:
Whatâs happening to the Badge Alliance?
The Badge Alliance is responding to the communityâs evolving needs and adapting to focus more closely on the Open Badges Standard and organizing direct cooperation between Alliance members whose success the Standard depends on. Nate Otto is taking on the responsibility of leading the BA as it makes this transition. The BA aims to remain a strong informational resource and a place to organize collaboration and discussion between community members.
Will all of the 2014 working groups continue?
The BA is a the best place to connect to the conversations happening in the world of badges, but it should not be the only place where conversations happen. Most of the call series that started in BA working groups in 2014 will not be reestablished within the BA formally, but for any of these groups and topic area that wants to restart regular calls, we can develop a plan and the infrastructure to make it happen. For example, Dan Hickey, James Willis, and Carla Casilli are continuing the Open Badges in Higher Education working group, which kicked off its new call series July 7, with fortnightly calls already lined up for Tuesdays at Noon US Eastern. Other topic area interest groups have already started organizing, led by individuals and organizations dedicated to making badges work within their niches. A great example is the Open Badges for Teacher Professional Development consortium led by Ben Roome (BadgeList/Knowledgestreem) and Sarah Blattner (Tamritz). We recognize that many of these conversations are best distributed across the ecosystem, not centralized in one organization, and will support those interest groups with central coordination when needed.
Will the Community Calls continue?
Yes, same badge time, same badge channel. This call has been a great resource for the badges community over the years to stay checked in. Nate Otto will take over moderating the weekly community calls and welcomes feedback and suggestions about how to use this space to best serve the community.
Whatâs happening with the original Badge Alliance team?
It has always been the intention to make the Badge Alliance entity as streamlined and easily sustainable as possible, so that we can spend less time raising money to cover operations, and more to feedback into the ecosystem. Additionally, with a new scoped focus on the Open Badges Standard, we felt we needed more technical leadership. For those reasons, we're transitioning the BA to a new, smaller core team led by Nate Otto. The original team will continue to contribute as community members, as well as through their own projects including Badge Labs and IMS Global.
Stay tuned to this, the Open Badges blog, BadgeAlliance.org, and the weekly community calls for more announcements and opportunities to ask questions or provide feedback.
What about the Cities of Learning?
The Cities of Learning program and its use case for Open Badges will continue to be improved and supported, including with the forthcoming release of a revamped badge-enabled platform that organizes learning. Look for more announcements about the Cities coming out over the summer and early fall as well as opportunities to sign your city up for summer 2017.
Nate is an employee of Concentric Sky. Wonât there be conflict of interest with Concentric Sky driving a neutral body like the BA since they have businesses interests around open badges and interest involved?
Much of the work of the next phase of building co-existing badge-enabled systems and services will be performed by member organizations of the BA, like Concentric Sky. Through the Standard Working Group charter and communication channels facilitated by the BA, all of these organizations will have a consensus-based process to guide the Open Badges specification and ecosystem forward in ways that seek to lift all boats as opposed to providing any commercial advantage to particular Alliance partners. Representatives from other commercial organizations working with Open Badges are likely to fill leadership roles and responsibilities in the future. As part of their responsibilities to the communities, representatives to the BA from these organizations will be asked to maintain a spirit of open cooperation, disclose their interests when relevant, and not take advantage of official roles within the BA to direct advantages to any particular organization. Questions, comments, and concerns are welcome in order to build the most effective and accessible BA possible.
Will the Badge Alliance be up to full speed right away?
No. Thanks for your patience as we work out the kinks, clean up loose ends, and get started on new initiatives. Our core regular programs, like the community call will have no interruption during the transition period, but it may take a little bit longer to get answers to questions and specific help as we finalize staffing for 2015-16.