Points

Earn points by completing tasks in our Volunteer Portal! Tasks are created to help build the Metabolism of Cities ecosystem, which needs to be up to date, accessible and useful to the wider community. As a community-led resource we want to recognise all contributions to this ecosystem from simply adding to our existing resources to carefully curating our projects and building new features. We value the time and effort our volunteers put into Metabolism of Cities and we want to recognise that contribution through our Points System.

The Points System was designed to award points to completed tasks based on the time and effort it takes to complete the task and the value of the output. Along the spectrum of simply uploading a publication or laboriously writing a data article for inclusion in our Data Hub, the output of a completed task is considered in the system. Points are assigned according to the type of task (uploading, reviewing, administering, curating, creating etc) and the value of the output in our work (a social media share vs creating an online course module). The points system is designed to award recognition to all contributors that tasks big or small and to level-up the more you contribute.

We hope that this system will create whole new level of engagement amongst our volunteers and perhaps spur on the competitive nature in some of us. In a more practical sense, the points awarded, in conjunction with Badges, will also unlock levels of access to have more administrative power within our projects.

Our Points and Badges System is a work in progress. Interested in building this with us? Discuss and help here.

Type of activity Category Points
Add a new event Uploading 2
Add a new organisation Uploading 2
Communication and engagement Communicating 5
Create education material Creating 10
Create visualisation or graphic Creating 10
Curate uploaded items Curating 4
Data research Creating 8
Design work Designing 5
General Research Work Creating 8
General administrative work Administering 2
General review work Reviewing 2
Process a dataset Curating 6
Process a publication Curating 4
Process a video Curating 4
Process shapefile Curating 6
Programming work Programming 5
Review a data article Reviewing 4
Review and publish shapefile Reviewing 3
Spec review Administering 5
Spec writing Administering 10
Upload Data Uploading 15
Upload a data visualisation Uploading 2
Upload a dataset to the inventory Uploading 2
Upload a photo Uploading 2
Upload a publication Uploading 4
Upload and curate items Curating 6
Upload shapefile Uploading 6

Badges

Badges aim to give recognition to those who have become experts in their field of contribution. Badges are digitally awarded to your profile when you have completed a certain number of tasks in a particular field. Each badge type has three levels of recognition: Gold, Silver and Bronze.

Bronze badge
Awarded for participation; easy to collect by diving in!

Silver badge
Awarded for significant contributions; harder to collect.

Gold badge
Very difficult to obtain; requires very significant contribution.

Our badges and badge levels have been heavily inspired by the Stack Overflow system.

Overview of available badges

Data reviewer
Review at least one shapefile, dataset, or data article
Data reviewer
Review at least 20 shapefiles, datasets, or data articles
Data reviewer
Review at least 100 shapefiles, datasets, or data articles
Data uploader
Upload your first dataset or shapefile
Data uploader
Upload 30 datasets or shapefiles
Data uploader
Upload 150 datasets or shapefiles
GIS curator
Process at least one shapefile
GIS curator
Process at least 20 shapefiles
GIS curator
Process at least 100 shapefiles
Librarian
Process at least one library item
Librarian
Process at least 30 library items
Librarian
Process at least 100 library items
Photographic contributor
Upload at least one photo
Photographic contributor
Upload at least 30 photos
Photographic contributor
Upload at least 100 photos