Committee for the Curation of Digital Ecosystems
Committee for the Curation of Digital Ecosystems
"make a new image of an overgrown landscape made of cybernetic plants
and animals in a modern surrealist style with an isometric view. It
should use bright and vibrant colors."
GPT-4 & DALL-E c. 2023
ComCODE teaches technical and economic literacy through open-ended gameplay. By immersing players in interactive digital ecosystems, ComCODE transforms the gaming experience into an active learning journey, producing real-world skills.
Computer programming, cybersecurity, AI, and understanding complex systems are becoming increasingly relevant skills. At ComCODE, we believe everyone deserves accessible education on these topics.
hackmud screenshot c. 2023
ComCODE operates and develops hackmud, an online multiplayer game styled after 80s and 90s hacking films.
hackmud was launched in 2016 and has inspired passion and curiosity for technical and economic topics among tens of thousands of people.
It teaches computer programming, opaque problem-solving skills, internet safety, cybersecurity, economics, and sustainability within an interactive and exploratory environment.
"make a photo of seattle's skyline"
GPT4 & DALL-E c. 2023
ComCODE was founded in 2023 by John Rush and Sean Mann, who share a deep passion for technical learning and non-traditional self-directed learning techniques. They saw an opportunity to make this knowledge more accessible for people who believe they cannot learn it.
By investing in improving hackmud's capabilities and accessibility, ComCODE will empower even more people with technical and economic literacy to bring back to their communities.
ComCODE works towards its mission by leveraging student-focused teaching, such as self-directed learning, project-based learning, peer teaching, and group learning. Multiplayer games achieve many of these techniques through natural interactions between players. Games are also incredibly powerful motivators. The increasing prevalence of gamification is a recognition of its ability to engage learners, teach practical skills, and improve retention. At ComCODE, we use our game hackmud as a digital ecosystem where players develop their technical and economic literacy through interactions with both the system and one another.
Using tight experiment-feedback-learn loops, players can build skills incrementally: small, singular projects like "color your chat messages" can be combined into larger collaborative projects like "create an army of chat bots which speak in rainbows." hackmud's digital ecosystem and its nearly infinite choice empowers players with a deep sense of agency over their learning journey.
hackmud also gives players real first-hand experiences with challenges like wealth inequality and ecological collapse — all within a safe environment.
Players gain deeper learning through collaborative policy and governance experiments that attempt to address these systemic issues.
