You Are What You Do

    So far, we’ve looked at ways for visitors to self-identify via creative expression, either through creation of content or selection among a few evocative, descriptive options. These profiles can be considered “aspirational” because they reflect how visitors perceive themselves and would like to be perceived by others.  But not all profiles are built this way. Some identity systems monitor actions, not personal expression, to generate user profiles. These "you are what you do" systems reduce the extent to which people can self-identify aspirationally, but they powerfully focus participation on a specific set of actions that are likely to be institutionally-driven. These kinds of profiles tie people to the activities supported by the institution, game, or platform.

    Consider the profiles offered in the science forecasting game Signtific. Signtific was a project of the Institute for the Future (launched in 2009) that invited people all over the world to collaboratively imagine the future via various scientific provocations. Signtific was structured as a game; users were called "players" and they received points for making various science-related predictions. But the game was really a highly structured dialogic exercise that forced people to argue for various visions of the future in the form of agreements, disagreements, adaptations, and questions about other players' predictions. 

    The profile structure for Signtific Lab was a powerful example of "you are what you do" profiling. New players shared only three pieces of personal information in the registration process: username, a one-word occupation, and city. Players could also select avatars from a set of stock science images and affiliations from a drop-down list. These five pieces—username, occupation, city, avatar, and affiliation—made up the creative part of each player’s profile and occupied a small corner of the "MY PAGE" profile screen.

    The rest of the page was a "you are what you do" profile that displayed all of the cards (arguments) the user had played in the game. Users could review their actions in the game to date and peruse follow-up arguments posted by other players. The profile also displayed users’ "strengths" based on the number of cards of different types played. Query other players and your "investigation" strength increased. Build on someone else's idea and your "momentum" strength grew. Finally, the user profile showed any awards the Signtific managers conferred upon you for particularly creative, high impact, or diverse argumentation. In this way, the Signtific creators expressed and supported specific values, and communicated those directly to users’ profiles. Signtific profiles weren't a reflection of how players wanted to be perceived. They presented users as they behaved in the context of the game, thus incentivizing people to act in ways that conformed to the goals and values of the game itself to improve their status and capabilities in the eyes of other players.

    “You are what you do” doesn't have to be limited to game space; often, this kind of identity infrastructure encourages people to "do" in the real world and see their actions reflected by the platform at hand. For example, in 2009, I worked with the Boston Children’s Museum to develop a blended onsite and online game , Our Green Trail, to encourage visitors to be more environmentally-conscious in their everyday lives. We decided that the online component of the game would serve as a profile reflecting (and rewarding) green behaviors performed in real life. The online environment is a "green village" in which every user has a home. The homes start as normal-looking buildings, but can transform into "green" houses with various environmental improvements. You don't improve your virtual home by playing online games; instead, your home advances when you self-report green activities in the real world—whether taking a reusable lunch bag to school, turning off the lights, or conserving water. In this way, the virtual homes serve as "green profiles" for the players’ real lives. A quick glance around the green village lets you know who is really excelling at living a green lifestyle. The profiling system rewards real behaviors and promotes a particular set of values in the way that players advance and are rewarded.

    "You are what you do" isn't just a convenient way to construct profiles that reflect institutional values. It's also a way to celebrate and support visitors for doing things that are not typically commemorated. The Signtific game rewarded me for “building momentum”, and that made me feel honored and interested in cultivating my ability to help push others' ideas further. The Boston Children’s Museum’s Green Trail provides a virtual reward when a child reports that she walked to school, and that may make her feel like there is tangible value to an hard-to-measure behavior.  "You are what you do" systems allow platforms to acknowledge, celebrate, and encourage people in relation to actions that frequently go unnoticed. This makes people feel validated, valued, and supported by the platform, which becomes a place that helps them reveal their best self.

    Museums have experimented with "you are what you do" profiles, but rarely in the context of promoting institutional values. There are several systems that document which exhibits a visitor used or which stamps he collected during his visit. The Sony WonderTech Lab, for example, prints out a certificate at the end of your visit that tells you what exhibits you used and congratulates you for doing so. In 2002, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago opened an exhibition called Networld in which visitors could purchase a Netpass, an RFID card that saved your progress as you moved through the exhibits. A digital avatar/virtual companion evolved over time as you completed each activity, thus creating a virtual representation of your accumulated learning through the exhibition. This is similar to the Boston Children’s Museum’s Green Trail in that the avatar, like the green home, evolves positively based on you doing something valued by the institution (in the case of Networld, using more exhibits). But this value system is fairly superficial, promoting volume of exhibit use, not comprehension, enjoyment, exploring or sharing. By changing the types of user actions that are reflected and supported, institutions that measure how many exhibits visitors use might shift to offering more meaningful profiles constructed from behaviors that connect to deeper learning or enjoyment.

    What are the visitor behaviors that you would like to celebrate and support? What under-recognized values might you reward visitors for exhibiting? How might you construct a profile system that acknowledges actions that are more ephemeral than simply logging in at various exhibits?

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