I really hate that term. My fear is that it will stick though.
Don’t get me wrong – there are some very useful things that are being called gamification. Many of them aren’t new though. There’s also a lot of crap that’s being labelled as gamification. I’m worried that most stuff will end up being part of the second group.
I’m staring to wonder just how much of the world is already gamified? Maybe it’s always been this way.
Example 1: Badges
There’s a local organization I’ve been trying to talk to since July. I keep sending mail to the President, and so far the best I’ve gotten is an apology for ‘losing my email’. Curiously, there are other people copied on the email – they don’t respond either. I of course can’t tell you if it is the case here but I suspect there are some people who seek various positions just so they can add to their ‘portfolio’. You know, like badges….. Member of …., President of…., yadda yadda.
Example 2: Leaderboards
For I while this summer, I made an effort to get an adjunct appointment. (For those of you from away – an Adjunct in Canada is a completely resource-neutral appointment. See the end of this post for an explanation.) I tried three different universities – one of them was the institution where I’d actually HAD an adjunct appointment. For the most part, they don’t even acknowledge my emails. That’s used to be considered rude. I still consider it unprofessional at the very least. My credentials are pretty good, so the university really has nothing to lose by adding my annual accomplishments as part of any unit’s “output”, unless… My list of publications would end up pretty close to the top of the publication counter leaderboard, so maybe they’d rather not have me. I recall reading somewhere that people don’t like people who raise the bar. Now, again, I have no way of telling what the real story is – they won’t tell me (I kind of doubt they’d tell me the truth anyways).
I resent the fact that most of what I’ve published in the last few years is associated with a university that won’t even answer my emails.
Example 3: Points
One of the latest gamification deals has been rolled out by LinkedIn. I can’t say for sure when they started it, but in the last month or two they have added a new “feature”: their “Skills & Expertise” endorsement game. Now, you can collect endorsements. Just you wait, it won’t be long before these endorsements start to look just like leaderboards, and you will be able to earn Endorsement badges, both for endorsing lots and lots of people, and for getting endorsed.
How many people have you endorsed? Did you REALLY know whether or not they had the expertise you said they did? Did you do it to make them feel good? Make them notice you? Maybe earn some cache in case you need a favour sometime in the future?
What about the people who don’t get endorsements? Does it actually mean they don’t have those skills?
Do people really believe this crap?
It’s a very small set of steps from “Networking” to “GroupThink” to “Mobbing”…..
Adjunct:
The title Adjunct Professor may be bestowed upon a person who is not a full-time member of the faculty. The granting of the title reflects some mutually beneficial scholarly association between the University and the candidate.
The title Adjunct Professor may be granted for any of the following purposes:
(1) To supervise or co-supervise graduate or undergraduate students
(2) To contribute to other scholarly pursuits of the department
(3) To facilitate the pursuit of independent research.
