620 Matching Annotations
  1. Last 7 days
    1. We are at crossroads when it comes to evaluation, its purpose, and how it is used. Before the pandemic and into the recovery phase, evaluation has been largely used to artificially enforce “accountability” and maintain a transactional relationship between funders and non-profit organizations. Demand for “accountability”; expectation to do more with less; and reporting on impacts are phrases that keep leaders of non-profits, including B3s awake at night. These phrases are particularly disempowering in an environment of transactional relationship between funders and non-profits. You might ask, what does this have to do with evaluation? Everything!Let’s think and reflect deeply on these phrases: Demand for accountability – who is demanding accountability and whose interest is fulfilled by meeting that accountability? Expectation to do more with less – who is expecting or promising to do more with less? Reporting on impacts – who is defining impact and/or how is impact defined and understood?Evaluation is neither neutral nor objective and in a transactional relationship between funders and non-profit organizations, its sole purpose becomes keeping the transactional relationship in place.
  2. Mar 2024
    1. Without exaggeration, I believe that the majority of published works in my field (broadly defined as psychology) do not add value. Many papers draw conclusions that are not supported by evidence, which cascades through the literature, because these papers are cited for the conclusions, not the evidence. The majority of published works are not reproducible, in the sense that authors conduct science behind closed doors without sharing data or code. Many published works are not replicable, i.e., will not hold up to scrutiny over time. Theories are verbal and vague, which means they can never get properly rejected. Instead, as Paul Meehl famously wrote, they sort of just slowly fade away as people lose interest. Let me try to convince you that it is an entirely reasonable position, based on the evidence we have.
  3. Feb 2024
    1. To be clear, funders and funded organizations should emphatically not reflexively believe that existing communications and communications channels are addressing these issues – one of the findings of our previous national high-lights report (available via the link on the final page of this report) was that funded organizations regularly communicating with funders about evaluation results were equally likely to feel that funders were driving the evaluation process and not making consistent use of findings.
  4. Jan 2024
    1. Show Ponies are typically built with limited grant funding that is allocated on a project basis. Sometimes they’re created merely to be a proof of concept. In other cases, their funders hope that “if you build it, they will come.” But because Show Ponies are usually funded by governments or non-profit organizations, they rarely have a revenue model. So even if they do gain traction and users, a Show Pony’s continued existence depends on continued support from governments or philanthropy rather than their users. This is a fragile existence, and the Internet is littered with neglected Show Ponies that aren’t being maintained.
    1. Given the potential real-world benefits, why have decision makers within governments, aid agencies, multilateral organizations, and NGOs not yet fully harnessed the value of evidence—including from impact evaluations—for better public policies?

  5. Dec 2023
  6. Nov 2023
    1. The earlier a serious Manhattan-like project to develop nanotechnology is initiated, the longer it will take to complete, because the earlier you start, the lower the foundation from which you begin. The actual project will then run for longer, and that will then mean more time for preparation: serious preparation only starts when the project starts, and the sooner the project starts, the longer it will take, so the longer the preparation time will be. And that suggests that we should push as hard as we can to get this product launched immediately, to maximize time for preparation.

      for sure?

  7. Oct 2023
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  9. Aug 2023
    1. However, one crucial question remains that has not yet been settled, and it is not a technical, but a social or political question: with everybody locked-in, who is to act in which way to ensure the redirection of funds from the legacy system to the replacement solution, i.e. an open scholarly infrastructure?
    2. interesting paper about replacing journals with more "modern" scholarly infrastructure

  10. Jul 2023
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  17. Dec 2022
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  22. Jul 2022
    1. As a result, there has been an increased focus on understanding and identifying the institutional changes that can support a more dynamic and effective relationship between marine science, policy, and practice

      As a result, there has been an increased focus on understanding and identifying the institutional changes that can support a more dynamic and effective relationship between marine science, policy, and practice

  23. Jun 2022
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  25. Apr 2022
    1. For this reason, the Secretary of State set out a vision1 for health and care to have nationalopen standards for data and interoperability that are mandated throughout the NHS andsocial care.
    1. The Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development mission is to provide a comprehensive registry of scientifically proven and scalable interventions that prevent or reduce the likelihood of antisocial behavior and promote a healthy course of youth development and adult maturity.

  26. Mar 2022
    1. Strategic, cost-efficient evidence-building relies onstrong data governance that facilitates the access, pro-tection, and use of program and other administrativedata to enable and support secondary uses, including for
    2. The statutemakes agency evidence-building plans, known as LearningAgendas, foundational to building a culture of evidencegeneration and use.
    1. The audit found that the CIO has limited insight into each Sector’s entire data holdings given a decentralized model, and lack of centralized guidance, standard definitions, and corporate data management system. CMSS representatives acknowledged that the NRCan Data Inventory is not a complete listing of NRCan datasets; however, it was found that it serves as a good starting point in identifying datasets held within the Department. However, per TBS guidance, a complete departmental inventory should include a list of all datasets even if they are identified as not eligible for release.
    1. About 49 percent of the World Bank's policy reports, which are published Economic and Sector Work or Technical Assistance reports, have the stated objective of informing the public debate or influencing the development community. This study uses information on downloads and citations to assesses whether policy reports meet this objective. About 13 percent of policy reports were downloaded at least 250 times while more than 31 percent of policy reports are never downloaded. Almost 87 percent of policy reports were never cited
    1. The Assault on EmpiricismFrom crime to climate change, the hostility of ‘movements’ to data is making it impossible to address real-world problems
    1. Earned Legitimacy Learning Cohort How governments are rebuilding trust with communities
    1. All Too HumanThe powerful are subject to the same flaws and follies as the rest of us.