While OB origins are strongly related to learning, what OBs are really about is ‘trust’ (what you describe is a ‘trust network’, isn’t it?). I believe that looking at badges from the sole point of learning could lead us to a dead end. Why? Because over 90% of so called ‘learning technologies’ are ‘impoverished technologies’ — take a ‘regular’ technology, remove 98% of it’s full potential, add 0.01% of ‘learning’ (in fact ‘teaching’) and call it ‘learning technology’ (think Drupal vs Mahara). Moreover while Google is not a ‘learning technology’, I learn more with Google than with all the Moodle of the world… Learning, trust, need general purpose technologies.

While OB has the potential to become a general purpose technology, I would hate to see it reduced to a(n) (empoverished) ‘learning technology.’

A learner by definition does not have a full understanding of the material, and by extension, does not have a full awareness of the potential learning space. I may have liked computers in high school, but that doesn’t mean I understood the full breadth of options available for study within that space — I didn’t know what I didn’t know. To that end, I believe there is a place for prescriptive pathways in the learning space, as a map or survey of the domain.

There are many balances to be struck between the desire of the learner and his or her capacity for self-guidance. A “contract” pathway could hypothetically facilitate exploration of an unknown space by mapping it and setting some initial parameters. It could also create common points of reference for the various stakeholders in the ecosystem — for students to orient themselves, for teachers and mentors to train to support, and for consumers to understand and accept. These qualities suggest that “contract” pathways could operate best alongside “desire” pathways, which have a far greater capacity for descriptive mapping.

Learning has need for both exploration and guidance — they are complementary, not adversarial. Ultimately, I believe a functioning Open Badge ecosystem will and must include all types of pathways, because each has innate advantages, for different learners and at different times, and they will work best together.

Intentional pathway
Similar to the Contract pathway in that the learner is projecting a way forward, but less stringent in that rerouting can occur at any point depending on changing internal and/or external conditions. An Intentional pathway is one a learner may be tentatively aiming toward, but not entirely committed to. This is a projected pathway that is likely to change as learning occurs. It may be valuable to document how projected paths change over time (perhaps attached as metadata at each point/badge along the learning trail) as a means for evaluating personal expectations and assessing growth.

Wandering pathway
Little to no pathway projection done up front. This pathway is truly explorational in nature!

I’m more interested in badges as representations of gratitude (eg. awards & recognition); memorabilia (eg. “I was there”); and shared cultural context in a community (eg. memes & stickers on laptops).

I guess all of those things can fall into participation, skill, and achievement buckets. But, in general, I see badges as little nuggets of intersecting significance between issuer and bearer. The issuer expresses significance by creating & issuing a badge. The bearer confirms it by pursuing, accepting, & displaying the badge. That includes learning, but also embraces a lot of other endeavors & scenarios.