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"The OBI is the 'plumbing' of the badge ecosystem. It is a specification for badges, set of repositories ("Backpacks") for storing badges and APIs for pushing badges in and pulling badges out. It's an important piece of this badge experiment because it moves us beyond more silo'd systems, allows the learner to collect badges from lots of different learning experiences and provides the structural components to enable badges to be transferred and leveraged across the ecosystem for real results like jobs or credits."

The concept of open badges could also pose a challenge to existing educational institutions, given that they might no longer be the chief conduits for awarding qualifications. Will they fight against the concept of badges or make fundamental changes to become part of the lifelong learning ecosystem, recognising badges in the entry process and awarding badges for more than just the core skills set out by a course, e.g. awarding value badges and recognising badges awarded by peers?

"Badges, we can see, are not about creating a learning space so much as a social-certification of learning space. Badges demonstrate achievement. They are not, as eportfolios are, a way to transform educational institutions, but instead are a way to bypass institutions. At least that is the current framing of the discussion around badges. Could badges serve as a new functionality within eportfolio systems? I see no reason why not (as a first reaction). "

What if employers didn't care whether applicants held a college diploma but instead asked what educational "badges" they had collected? Like Boy Scout merit badges for professionals, these marks of achievement would show competence in specific skills, and they could be granted by any number of institutions.

Of course I followed the roll out of MacArthur's Badges for Lifelong Learning competition quite closely. I have studied participatory approaches to assessment and motivation for many years. Thanks in part to Daniel Pink's widely read book Drive, many worried that badges would trivialize deep learning and leave learners with decreased intrinsic motivation to learn.

one of the most important aspects -- in my opinion -- of the Open Badges project is that it is "open." The infrastructure is open (anyone can become an issuer). The technology is open (open source). And users control their own data.

While a résumé has been in some ways the business equivalent of a chest full of medals, current efforts are underway to standardize badging systems and create a worldwide, digital, interoperable currency of human endeavor and success.

To follow an Open Practice ethos is to make available your work to the wider community. One element of this is to share your materials to the community, so that others may easily identify useful and relevant materials. In this collective way, a social filtering of materials can occur.

"A generation from now, the show-what-you-know category may be as important as diplomas."

Using the new OER logo is a way of creating a common identity for the global OER community of practitioners, projects and researchers. The design creates a common visual idea and allows for the name of the term 'OER' to be expressed in different languages. "