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Another important general feature of the site is the participation reward system of honor badges. A strong argument made by Lieutenant Governor of California Gavin Newsom (2013), in his book Citizenville, is that much of the population has come to love apps and mobile gaming, the youth and future voting population in particular. The statement that government should “meet the people where they are” also contends that a “gamification” of politics would be effective at encouraging civic involvement (2013). Author and well known scholar of social sciences, Malcolm Gladwell (2000), in his book “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”, argues that trends typically depend on a “stickiness factor” which in many cases is like a gimmick or simple attribute that appeals to a large portion of the population leading to an epidemic trend. The honor badge achievement system woven through the features of the site will make political participation more rewarding, fun, and for many it will be the “sticky factor”, spurring ongoing participation. Digital Citizen works to have as many sticky factors as possible so that it can appeal to more of the public and take the simple and practical steps necessary for increasing political participation via this new medium.

The honor badge system and DigiCiti Builder game might be frowned upon by some because it could lead to shallow use of the site instigated by gamesmanship instead of sincere and responsible political interest. It is the position of Digital Citizen that those who view the site as a game will still probably benefit our society by their interactions on the site, even if they are motivated by superficial factors. This is true for two main reasons; one because the superficial users will still likely find issues they consider seriously, and two because even if they never contribute in an intentionally meaningful way, the uniquely special gift of democracy’s power to self-correct will have other serious users respond to baseless arguments with ideas that win by their merits. This principle is somewhat analogous to the way that inoculations work in the human body. When we defeated smallpox it was by injecting non-lethal doses of the virus so that our antibodies could learn to fight the real threat by developing immunity. Injecting weak ideas into our political deliberations can inoculate the political sphere of communications by revealing the toxic ideas to our serious members of society and empowering them to fight off failed ideas much like creating an antibody against a virus.

Honor Badges of Digital Citizenship

Another important general feature of the site is the participation reward system of honor badges. A strong argument made by Lieutenant Governor of California Gavin Newsom (2013), in his book Citizenville, is that much of the population has come to love apps and mobile gaming, the youth and future voting population in particular. The statement that government should “meet the people where they are” also contends that a “gameification” of politics would be effective at encouraging civic involvement (2013) (for a defense of “gameification” see section 5F – Politics is not a Game?). Author and well known scholar of social sciences, Malcolm Gladwell (2000), in his book “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”, argues that trends typically depend on a “stickiness factor” which in many cases is like a gimmick or simple attribute that appeals to a large portion of the population leading to an epidemic trend. The honor badge achievement system woven through the features of the site will make political participation more rewarding, fun, and for many it will be the “sticky factor”, spurring ongoing participation. Digital Citizen works to have as many sticky factors as possible so that it can appeal to more of the public and take the simple and practical steps necessary for increasing political participation via this new medium.

Users can receive honor badges, which are essentially small decorative icons, by performing activities on the site. The badges appear on their profile and in various ways alongside their picture and posts on the site. These badges are achievement indicators that encourage and reward participation in various aspects of the site. Users gain a sense of personal accomplishment and can earn clout amongst their peers.

An “Achievements” page will describe the various possible achievements and what needs to be done in order to earn them so that users can even target specific badges they want to earn. Some achievements can have tiers, for example, the “Pro Debate Creator” achievement which would reward users who create 10 debates that receive a minimum of 50 unique views and 10 comments each. That achievement would have a unique badge and be the tier one version of the debate creator achievement category while an upgraded badge would be awarded for those who make 20 such debates and so on. This type of reward system takes away feelings that political engagement is tedious, inconvenient, or downright unpleasant, by turning it into a fun activity that inspires gamesmanship amongst users. Friendly competition for badges and efforts to earn credibility and praise among peers can be powerful incentives that can distract from the tension of political issues.

Consistent participation rewards, even just for signing in daily, will motivate users to visit the site regularly for changing daily, weekly, and monthly achievements. Accumulation of badges gives a user the Honors Achiever badge collector achievement for those who complete a wide variety of badge categories. A Badge of Honor Achievements page in the site will show animations for awarded badges and show users what opportunities they have to earn more honors. Rewards can be given with automated tracking of activities on the site. A user can chose to opt out of the achievement system. Ongoing development will make honor badge earnings a robust and ever changing source of entertainment for users who get involved via the site.

While it is not ideal that users log in to simply earn badges of honor and compete for achievements, those who do are still participating in politics and will likely experience the sites intended positive effects despite their simple desire to “1-up” their peers. So even in the worst case scenario, where users log in for superficial desires to earn badges, the process of doing so will have a positive net effect of getting them more involved and connecting people to important information. If one believes in the effectiveness of democracy, then one should also believe that the “battlefield” of competing ideas will be enhanced by an environment like Digital Citizen, in which ideas live and die by their merits (for more on this topic, see section 5F – Politics is not a Game?).

DigiCiti Builder Game

In keeping with the “meet the people where they are” theme, and the rationale behind the honor badge system, users can take the fun to higher level with the DigitCiti Builder game as they develop an interactive animated city which is enhanced by performing activities on the site. Regular behaviors on the site, as simple as logging in, can reward users with a 3D image of a city that grows and develops dynamically in response to the types of activities made by the user. For example, if one earns numerous achievements in the Learning section of the site, they will see their schools grow and their population become more talented, while other actions in other categories such as debate, events, or the wiki may improve other unique forms of economic gain or prosperity that empower users to build infrastructure in their custom city.

Users can view one another’s city and comment in admiration of the creativity and achievements etc. Points allow them to color and rearrange it with many creative options and themes. Cities can focus on various things, such as agriculture, energy production, education, medicine, transportation, tourism, military, finance, manufacturing or just partying. If possible, use of Google maps information based on user zip code might enable us to use satellite images of their actual city and model improvements to the virtual city based on a template of the user’s actual one.

The user can allow the city to grow without paying any attention to it or they can choose to take control of its development and spend achievement points as they see fit. By default, it will grow on “auto pilot” and can have design presets with themes of prehistoric mankind, modern metropolis, space age, or Atlantis to name a few. If users take control they will enter into a complex game of making a city and pleasing its inhabitants. Earning badges earns building points and unique types of influence points, for example, if one earns badges from the Counterweight section of the site they can gain large bonuses for influence points which can be used to make unique types of structures for the city like parks, night clubs, recreation centers, or sports stadiums. There will be basic building points earned for every activity which support fundamental functions of the city, but for more unique and entertaining elements to be added, one has to earn specialized points such as influence, economic, human rights, charisma, or academia points to name a few. Building of basic structures like schools, hospitals, military bases, and establishing institutions to run them will be tasks to complete as users earn basic building points from their participation in various features of the site or even just logging in.

The city has a life of its own with a population that needs attention from the user who will be presented with options for how to meet their demands. The public may ask for more street infrastructure repairs and offer a few options for how that request can be satisfied. The game presents the user with a few choices about how they can participate in the site to get the citizens what they want. The action could be as simple as commenting on a debate, or voting up a suggested revision to bill text in the “Open-Source Legislation” section. After performing a few activities earning points, the user would see a message from their population thanking them for fixing the roads and cheering for them. A user might be notified that their constituents are feeling melancholy and task the user with liking 10 posts by their peers in order to earn points for building a theme park. These are just some possible examples for how to inspire and reward civic participation on the site.

This game can be a simple and addictive feature which is tied into activity on the site in a fun and creative way. It may also become source of funding as the game becomes increasingly popular and Digital Citizen offers additional customizations to the city themes, population animations/appearances, buildings, and coloring options for purchase.