The theme for the 15th international conference on ePortfolio, Open Badges, Identity and Trust is the natural outcome of a series of initiatives that were launched at ePIC 2016:

The Bologna Open Recognition Declaration (link is external), a remix of the original Bologna Declaration calling for a truly open approach to the recognition of all forms of learning;

The Open Recognition Alliance (link is external), a network dedicated to promoting the values and goals contained in the Bologna Open Recognition Declaration;

The first International Open Recognition Day (link is external) to celebrate all forms of learning and recognition will take place October 25th, during ePIC's first day.

Started in October 2003 with the first international ePortfolio conference in Poitiers (France), the focus of ePIC has always been about the technologies and practices that could contribute to making learning more visible and valuable. While most other learning techology events tend to focus on the tools used to enable and facilitate (mostly formal) learning, ePIC is primarily focused on the technologies and practices that make learning and learners more visible, recognisable and valuable. Hence our journey from ePortfolios to Open Badges and our interest in identity construction, social capital and trust issues.

While Open Badges have proven to be an effective means in making informal learning visible and recognisable, there is an even larger construction site ahead of us: making informal recognition visible and valuable. The first step in that direction was achieved with the publication of new Open Badges specification (2.0) and the possibility of badge endorsement, i.e. adding value to a badge by collecting endorsements of peers, clients, employers, professional bodies, etc.

Now that it is possible to endorse a badge, why limit endorsements to badges only? Why not give people the power to endorse anything they want/need to endorse: a document, a website, an organisation, a person that does not already have a badge? After all, isn't it what we do on eBay, LinkedIn, TripAdvisor, Twitter and Facebook ("like")? Can't we regain control of our endorsements and move them out of the existing silos?

This is one of the 10 Open Badge Challenges (link is external) that will be addressed during ePIC 2017. We are looking forward to your contribution to tackling them and working together to unleash the full power of Open Badges