Recognition Program
Recognition
Hispanotech is a 100% volunteer-led and run organization, and our activities and services are only possible thanks to the commitment and dedication of our Volunteers, most of whom have a day job and family obligations, and the support of our Partners. It is therefore very important for us to recognize the contributions of our Volunteers, Mentors, Directors, and Supporters.
Furthermore, volunteering and giving back are widely seen as indicators of a person's civic maturity, and have great value in professional branding and enhancing career and employment prospects.
eBadges
Issuing smart digital badges is a managed, verifiable and shareable way to recognize contributions from our Members and partners. eBadges contain detailed information about the achievement and what the recipient did to earn the badge, as well as information about the organization who issued the badge; the criteria that the badge has been assessed against, evidence, when the badge was issued, a verifiable reference to the recipient and a number of other properties.
Hispanotech issues five categories of badges:
- Volunteers: recognizes Members that have given their time and expertise for a minimum of 4 months in a year. Volunteers work as part of a team in one of our Committees and are given assignments relevant to their careers, requiring a minimum of 2-3 hours per week.
- Mentors & Mentees: recognizes successful completion of our structured Mentorship Program, requiring weekly interactions during 12 weeks.
- Directors: recognizes volunteers that take up positions of higher responsibility as Officers and Executive Directors of Hispanotech, leading one of our Committees. Directors must commit a minimum of 4 hours per week, but multiples of that are not unusual. Terms are minimum 2 years, plus possibly two 1 year extensions.
- Sponsors: recognizes organizations that provide financial and/or in-kind support to help cover Hispanotech's operating expenses.
- Speakers: recognizes leading professionals that have volunteered their time to share their knowledge and expertise presenting in one or more of our events.
How to Use Them
When you are awarded an eBadge you will receive an email with instructions and a link to Get your badge. Following the link will present you options to view and/or download your eBadge, to copy its URL, and to apply your eBadge to your LinkedIn profile, or post it in Facebook/Meta or Twitter.
eBadge recipients can share and display their achievements in multiple ways:
- LinkedIn: follow the link in the email to apply the eBadge to your profile as a Certification and as a Skill.
- Passport: use any Open Badge-compatible passport application to collect and display your eBadges. The ones we recommend are CanCred Passport and Open Badge Passport; both are free.
- Website: you can use the image and URL to display your achievement in your personal website or digital portfolio.
- Email: you can include your eBadge image and URL in your email body or signature.
- Printed: you can include your eBadge image and URL in any printed or electronic documents, e.g. your résumé or cover letter.
In all cases, clicking on the eBadge image or URL will display verifiable and authoritative information about the organization that issued it (Hispanotech), and the criteria that you had to meet to earn the eBadge.
Platform
Hispanotech uses the CanCred Factory cloud platform to issue, manage, host and verify our eBadges (smart digital credentials). Technically, it is identical to Open Badge Factory with the same comprehensive set of tools for creating, issuing and managing Open Badges. But CanCred Factory is a distinctly Canadian service, hosted on servers in Canada and focused on the needs of Canadian badge issuers.
For the technically inclined, an Open Badge is a PNG or SVG image file that invisibly incorporates “metadata” in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) or JSON-LD (JSON for Linked Data) format. You can find details and specifications here.
