To some, these achievements are meaningless baubles. To others, they are trophies to be celebrated with friends. For the latter group there exists Score.ly, a fledgling startup.
Score.ly aggregates badges and activities via APIs from 12 different social media and entertainment sites. On Score.ly, users connect accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla, GetGlue, Flickr, XBox Live, Netflix and so forth, and Score.ly grabs their earned achievements, awards badges of its own and then houses them all in user "Folios," short for portfolios.
"It's an online trophy case," founder Elizabeth Fuller explains.
An Online Trophy Case
Fuller, ever-curious about the way in which people choose to represent themselves, has been thinking about the discrepancies between real-world achievements and online accomplishments for years.
She, along with business partner David Leibowitz, started to think specifically around the idea of an online trophy case as a place to collect and share achievements in the summer of 2010. The idea grew into a business after the pair pitched the startup at a Startup Weekend event in New York city and won $10,000 in seed money from AOL Ventures.
Score.ly then launched an alpha version of the site in September and has since go on to receive a tempered response for online denizens. The startup isn't publicly releasing the exact size of its user base, but the number is in the tens of thousands.
Are These Collectors Items?
Not all trophies are created equal. An honorable mention is far less memorable than a first place or grand supreme showing. Does the same stratification exist for digital awards, and which, if any, have lasting value?
And will our children and children's children one day see our online trophies as testaments of real achievement? Will they say, grandma, "I can't believe you unlocked the Douchebag badge on Foursquare? Tell me how you did it!"
Perhaps not. Still, Fuller insists that Score.ly's small user base is actively engaged. "We've noticed that people linger on, and get excited about, the LeaderMap," she says.
The LeaderMap is a portion of the site where Score.ly users can sort a leaderboard of friends by achievements, kudos (Score.ly's answer to the "like"), Twitter followers, Foursquare badges and the rest.
But, Fuller sounds uncertain about what the startup can realistically do with the achievements it aggregates in the long run. Her answer to the question, "What's the point of collecting these things?" is barely tangible. "We're looking at new ways to aggregate and spread this information," she says.
The young startup has plenty of time to explore the "So, what?" question, and it even has a few ideas around monetization that Fuller's not ready to disclose.
So, is this a give-it-time-to-mature startup or a service that celebrates a temporary fad in internet culture? That's for you to decide.
Image courtesy of confidence, comely, Flickr
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark