I just unlocked the ‘client-friendly’ badge on GoldenLadder (or did I?)
I have been joining some dots between the automatic sharing functionality now being enabled in Facebook and the practice of utilising game theory to increase participation within social networks. Facebook’s new frictionless sharing model generates micro-posts based on current activities: I am listening to a song right now or I am reading an article right now, etc. That seems to be of limited interest, and something best experienced in the ‘river of news’ format of the new sidebar ticker. But from there it does seem to be only a short step to generating more interesting aggregate posts that may give stronger signals about whatever we are focused on.
It is too easy to scoff at the achievement badge notifications showing up in my Facebook news feed: Daphne is the mayor of her favourite coffee shop; Fred has unlocked the AppleFanBoy badge for three check-ins at an Apple Store; and Velma has gone to more than five museums in the last month, etc. I think that something interesting is going in beneath the surface that is worth thinking about a bit further. The gamification model is currently most associated with location-based check-ins, but what other possibilities could it lead too? So setting aside all of the incessant buzzing about privacy, and abou Facebook and Google being “just creepy enough” and the related conversations about advertising metrics and monetisation, let’s take a look at some thought experiments.