You can now push Badges to the Mozilla Open Badges Backpack.

I came back from yoga to my Brooklyn apartment, and our Tech Lead, Dirk Uys, was asleep. On my couch. He was in town from Durban, South Africa en route to Boston for a hackathon. I fixed coffee, poked that dormant mound of jetlagged developer, and we called Erika, our front-end wizard in Slovenia. For an hour we made decisions on product improvements from my kitchen table. (Full disclosure: I was in yoga pants the whole time).

This example isn’t rare–it’s actually the norm for P2PU. We visit each other, travel with each other, include P2PUers amongst our closest friends. What is it about P2PU that makes us love being around each other so damn much that we just want to devour each other’s minds?  We’re a team of 6 on 3 continents that rarely sees each other–it can’t be magic. I was inspired by Kyle Bragger’s recent post which encouraged folks in the technology sector to lead fuller, grind-free lives. Alex Godin wrote a follow-up post prompting people to listen to each other versus network. I agree with Kyle and Alex, but I wanted to take it further–for P2PU, we don’t think in terms of “hustling” or even about work/life “balance”–it’s about depth, about a more open kind of mindset.

People Before Transactions

“Instead, I propose that it’s better to carve out an opportunity to build some relationships BEFORE the transaction has an opportunity to take place. The interactions that come as a part of forming early stages of a relationship with another human being are far more valuable if and when the time for transaction occurs.” –Alex Hillman “Take Interest, Don’t Feign Interest”

First and foremost, at P2PU we see each other as people–before the “transaction” of work–and we admire the person, not the “role.” We’re individuals with very complex lives and interests. We’ve gone through trans-continental moves, breakups, illness, graduate school, and other huge transitional life phases together. That vulnerability and sharing forms the trust that allows us to stay in each other’s homes, introduce P2PUers into our social circles, and include each other in the wider fabric of our lives.

I believe Alex Hillman’s conviction–connecting with each other as friends before transactions–has made our projects more kickass. Paul Osman and I hatched a plan for a P2PU-MIT-SoundCloud interdisciplinary Hackathon over beers in Tempelhof Park. That event sparked a P2PU Audio project led by Chris Ewald that was recently funded by the Shuttleworth Foundation.

When we connect around our mutual interests, passions, and have reserves of trust in the bank, we make projects that are fulfilling. It’s work, in the “effort” sort of sense, but not labor. You don’t punch a clock when it comes to people you downright dig.

You Do You

“We’re about to start the broadcast, so if any of you have further objectionable things to say about pants, get it out of your systems now.” –Bekka Kahn, Community Manager, P2PU, before last week’s Community Call

P2PU started as a group of edupunks who wanted to change the way we learn. By its very nature, we are a group of “questioners,” perhaps even rebels. How does a culture of “informed irreverence” translate to the day-to-day? For me, at my job, I’m never held back from Waving my Freak Flag.

What does that mean? In a nutshell, working at P2PU allows me to be myself, all the time. I don’t have to shelve aspects of my personality that I might have to, say, in a corporate setting. I’m not afraid to show my fellow P2PUers who I really am–I am utterly comfortable. And this comfort is useful.  In educational theory, we often refer to the “affective dimension” of learning–or, how you feel when you’re learning influences how far you’ll take a project or how easily you’ll overcome frustration (see Picard, et. al. for more detail). If you approach a project in a comfortable or curious mindset (versus fear or anxiety) you are more likely to accomplish excellent stuff.

Which leads me to believe that compartmentalizing your professional persona from your actual self might be toxic. Or, at the very least, will inhibit awesomeness from fully occurring. Don’t be afraid to Wave that Flag.

Love Your Passport

“According to the researchers, the experience of another culture endows us with a valuable open-mindedness, making it easier to realise that a single thing can have multiple meanings….Such cultural contrasts mean that seasoned travellers are alive to ambiguity, more willing to realise that there are different (and equally valid) ways of interpreting the world. This in turn allows them to expand the circumference of their “cognitive inputs”, as they refuse to settle for their first answers and initial guesses.” -Jonah Lehrer, “Why We Travel”

There’s no keeping track of the global itineraries of P2PU staff, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. I report from Berlin, Philipp from Boston, Dirk from Durban, Bekka in London, Erika from Ljubljana and Chris, well…we never really know where Chris is. We’re always on the move, we stretch our cultural and analytical frameworks, stumble across new methods and ideas, and we bring that wealth of experiences back to P2PU.

I believe that our traveling band of P2PUers makes us more analytically flexible. This “thought diversity” enriches the team, and encourages us to think about “talent” in a different way. Talent is the ability the be open-minded and engage many different types of people with your skill set.

I’m curious about whether this kind of culture leads to gender diversity as well. P2PU is an even 50/50 split between men and women, even on the tech side. That hypothesis would be hard to prove, but my gut says that diversity is not just an internal policy. It’s also external, it’s encouraging your team to go out and have diverse experiences, so that they can connect with folks of all stripes. 

We’re On a Mission

True story: I was hired from the P2PU Community. I had run 3 courses on P2PU, was attending graduate school to improve my understanding of learning, and basically I had P2PU on the brain. But I’m not alone–everyone who works on P2PU is alight with passion, most of all our totally badass community members. We’re on a mission as an organization, and we try make  everything we do opt-in and interest-driven. So, how do we design for passion in our community?

It’s actually pretty simple: we’re all in this together, and we approach our community with this philosophy. Last summer we invited 20 community members to Berlin over the course of a month to work on projects of their choosing. Alex Kehayias built a mentorship platform. Jessy Kate Schingler set up our blog. Jane Park, Piet Kleymeer and Molly Kleinman organized P2PU’s School of Open. Recognizing and nurturing passion is also reflected on our People page–if you’re contributing to P2PU, whether you’re staff or a community member, you’re welcome to be up there.

Last week Ari Bader-Natal stopped me in mid-sentence–I had said the term “user” and he called me out on it. His line of thought is totally spot-on, because P2PU folks are not just users of software–we are “members,” which is an important distinction. Even in the language we use, we should be moving away from hierarchy and towards participation. I won’t forget it, Ari :)

Putting the Pieces Together

I should say that working on a non-profit, specifically non-profit tech, is not all hearts and rainbows. We encounter hiccups, disappointments and frustrations like all humans do (e.g. I’m sure Dirk *loves* resolving my spirited bug reports. Every. Last. One.). But my point is that seeing each other in three-dimensions helps to ease those tensions. Admittedly, we enjoy a unique position–as a non-profit, we are immune to many of the pressures of the business world. But seeing each other as humans first has widespread appeal and applications–these are ideas you can use.

And all of them basically trace back to our core value of “openness”–put another way, these are concrete examples of the freedoms openness affords. Not only are these guidelines signs of our core values–put people before transactions, support individuality, live globally and design for passion–but these are the elements that lead to real community. Not brand loyalty. Not conversion. Not really anything that could be captured by even the most sophisticated analytics. Rather, we have deep bonds between open-minded people who push each other to be more curious–that’s the glue. That’s our culture.

Technology offers the university two directions. One is characterized by efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and re-organization into its component parts. The other imagines an open ecosystem of learning experiences that form around the interests and passions of the individual learners. The first strives to eliminate friction and slack, the second celebrates unexpected connections, detours and serendipity. Both are well-intentioned and believe they provide the solution to improving learning opportunities for more people.

Option 1 – The Travel Service

In the world of the highly efficient travel service, we have a map of all knowledge and we know all the roads, train tracks and flight paths a learner can take. Using a wealth of data, we move learners from point A to point B in the most efficient and cost-effective way. In the perfect system, nobody ever gets lost. Incentive systems provide motivation and guidance to help learners stay on the road. As Salman Khan said, “just the wording of the badging or how many points you get for doing something, we see […] tens of thousands of fifth graders or sixth graders going one direction or another, depending what badge you give them.” Travel agents (most of them software agents) help us get where we want to go. Learners choose from a rich menu of packaged learning trips, and there is something to suit every budget or available time, including two week immersions, or 3-year bed & breakfast. Learners “complete” these trips rather than “explore” new terrain. Popular destinations include maximum employability or life enrichment.

Some of this exists already, but proponents hope that driven by data, machine learning and online courses we can get much much better, more efficient, and cheaper. But there is an alternative, that we can see if we look to the early days of the web for inspiration.

Option 2 – Euro-rail

Euro-rail is a train ticket that allows passage on any of Europe’s long-distance trains for a certain period of time. It is also an experience of youth and freedom and summer that creates memories, which never fade. Learners start with only a vague idea of the major destinations they want to reach. They meet people along the way, make new friends (kiss someone whose language they don’t speak) and change plans. There is a lot of staying up all night with best friends (old and new), marveling at the sun as it comes up in a foreign country of new ideas, and debating the purpose of life. There is also a fair amount of getting in trouble, and figuring out ways to get out of trouble. And one doesn’t so much just learn about the ideas and places one visits and the people one meets, but gets to try out new steps, test new habits, and experiment with new ideas. Euro-rail is a life-changing experience. And so is learning. Travelers and learners return from their journeys as different people: richer in memories, experiences, friends (and with a bag full of extremely dirty laundry).

While option 2 sounds more like hobo academy than the ivy leagues, the skills we develop on euro-rail–to engage with other people, to identify interesting things to do, to follow our passion, to overcome obstacles, to know when to ask for help–are the skills our societies and economies need today. Creative solutions to immense challenges can only be discovered by creative and resourceful thinkers and makers, not by diligent timetable readers.

In learning, as in great travel, there is a magic that we can’t quite explain. Online technology has great potential to bring this magic to many more people. We get a glimpse of what it can look like in the many thriving communities of practice that collaborate online. Yet most of the new online learning initiatives point us in a very different direction, the direction of the travel agency. And that is why it is important to engage with the debate and ask ourselves what we want the institution to be, an efficient travel agency or an experience that changes lives.

How it Works.

Everyone is an Expert in something. Maybe you know how to make the perfect costume for your pet. Or you bring objects to life via 3D-drafting and printing. The point is that we’re a curious crew that’s down to learn how to make the next thing–whether it be digital, analog or abstract. Sound about right?

At P2PU, Badges are a way to recognize and support your expertise as you evolve. If you see a Badge on badges.p2pu.org that’s in line with a Project you’re working on, you can submit it for feedback from an Expert.

When you submit your Project, we’ll ask you to step out what you did, and reflect a bit on what you’d do differently. This might seem obvious to you as the creator of your masterpiece, but it’ll help you get more targeted feedback (we promise).

We’ll notify an Expert that your Project is ready. An Expert is someone who either a.) made the darn Badge in the first place, or b.) submitted a Project which demonstrated their wizardry. They’ll come to your Project in short order, and deliver some robust suggestions for your individual needs. You’ll see that the feedback comes as Kudos, Questions and Concerns:

From here you’ll either be awarded the Badge, or prompted to take a look at the feedback and improve your project. You can resubmit your Project as many times as you like–the feedback will travel with the Project, and we’ll try to get the same Expert to continue to help you out.

If and when you do acquire the Badge, it will appear on your badges.p2pu.org profile page, and you’ll be an Expert yourself. Celebration!

Creating a Badge.

If feedback is a conversation, then creating a Badge sparks a whole community around something you love. If you are a P2PU course facilitator, an organizer of a conference, or if a certain subject matter floats your boat, consider making a Badge for it:

From there, you’ll have a chance to preview and publish your Badge. If you just want to save it and come back later, the Badge will appear in your profile under “Badges in the Garden Shed.”

FAQs.

How long will my Badge take to be published and ready for action?  
Immediately. You’ll get to preview it before you publish, and then you’ll get a confirmation that the Badge is live.

How do I add a Badge to my P2PU course?
We’re working on a very light Badges/P2PU course integration in the next 4 weeks. In the meantime, each Badge has a unique URL. Create a new content module (i.e. “Submit Project for a Badge”) and copy and paste the Badge URL into that content field. Here’s an example:

I’m not in a P2PU course, but I have an event or a project I’d like to create a badge for. Can I? 
Yeah buddy–go for it. You can create a Badge for any kind of Project or event. Just direct folks towards your Badge’s particular URL so they can apply for it.

I’m an Expert and possess the Badge. How will I know when Projects are submitted? 
We’ll notify you with a snappy message in your Inbox.

Do your Badges integrate with the Open Badges Infrastructure? 
They will by May 1, 2013. Stay tuned for updates.

How Do I Edit My Badge After It’s Published?
Since Badges are live immediately, and anyone can apply for them, we chose to maintain the fidelity of each Badge. So if you applied for Podcast Description and Title and the criteria are “Upload your podcast and give it a name” that Badge should *always* have those criteria for everyone who applies for it. If the criteria or description need to be changed, then it’s a different Badge.

So, in this light, we made two design decisions:

• We supply extensive warning copy in the Badge creation flow, and created the functionality to save your draft and return to it later. The draft Badge will appear in your profile as a “Badge in the Garden Shed.” 

• We made the Badge creation process really easy, simple and immediate–so if you want to create a better, spiffier version of the Badge, you can make another one easily.

What’s Coming Down the Pike.

Here’s a little window into the features we are furiously working on here at P2PU. These items are on deck for our next sprint:

• Integration of Badges into P2PU.org courses
• Spiffy landing page gallery sort/search/filter
• Ability to evaluate the usefulness of feedback
• Badge creation gallery of shapes and colors
• Open Badges Infrastructure Integration

Find Out More.

In all seriousness, the skills we need evolve fast and furiously. At P2PU, we believe learning is guided by passion, projects and people. We’ve created a space to connect those arenas and help learners grow. So, Badges represent learning online that you can feel good about. If you’re curious about Badges or P2PU and would like to find out more, here’s some info:

• Check out the Pedagogy Behind Badges.
• Follow our progress on our team Trello Board.
• Join the P2PU Community to find out what crafty experiments we’re up to.
• Contact Vanessa, your humble Mad Learning Scientist.