Gabe Zichermann

Gamification.Co & Gamification Summit

Designing for Engagement with Gamification in Open Source
16 minutes, 7.7mb, recorded 2011-07-28
Gabe Zichermann

Open source has meant many things to many people. For some, it is a collaborative platform that allows developers to share their contribution; for some others it is a community; but what does it mean to the end-user? What do end-users perceive open source as? Why does open source not have the aspirational brand identity as something that is described as "fair-trade", or "Made in the USA" or "organic?" And how do we get the end-user to care about the issues around open-source that developers care for? According to Gabe Zichermann, gamification has a role to play in achieving this end.

Gamification is the application of game design techniques in solving problems that relate to domains other than game development. Zichermann mentions examples of how it has been used by the government of Sweden to control over-speeding traffic, for instance.

While quoting instances of its application in administrative affairs and everyday life, he urges developers to include it in the design-process from ground-up. The first few minutes a user runs an application helps him or her decide if they are going to like it, he says. Those first few minutes are critical, and must be carefully accounted for in software design.


Gabe Zichermann is an author, highly rated public speaker and entrepreneur. He is the chair of the Gamification Summit and editor of the industry’s leading publication, The Gamification Blog. His most recent book, Game-Based Marketing (Wiley, 2010) has achieved critical and industry acclaim for its detailed look at innovators who blend the power of games with brand strategy. His next book, Gamification by Design (O’Reilly, 2011) looks at the technical and architectural considerations for designers in this burgeoning field. A resident of NYC, Gabe is a board member of StartOut.org, advisor to a number of startups and Facilitator for the Founder Institute in Manhattan. For more information about Gabe and Gamification, visit http://Gamification.Co

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Photo: The Gamification Blog