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 is dedicated to teaching technical and economic literacy through interactive digital ecosystems.
Computer programming, cybersecurity, AI, and the ability to understand complex systems are becoming increasingly relevant skills in day-to-day life. 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 teaches computer programming, opaque problem-solving skills, internet safety, cybersecurity, economics, and sustainability within an interactive and exploratory structure.
"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 are not capable of this learning.
hackmud was launched in 2016 and has inspired passion and curiosity for technical and economic topics within tens of thousands of people. By investing in improving hackmud's capabilities and accessibility, ComCODE will empower even more people with technical and economic literacy for them 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 utilize 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 which attempt to address these systemic issues.
