This post was co-authored by Yanina Bellini Saibene and CSCCE Staff, and can also be found on the rOpenSci blog.
How do you measure the impact of a community champions program? This was the central question of a working session at CZI’s Accelerating Open Science in Latin America workshop, convened by rOpenSci’s Community Manager Yani Bellini Saibene and attended by CSCCE’s Founder and Director, Lou Woodley.
Measuring the impact of any kind of community program presents a series of challenges :
- What is the impact that you’re hoping your program will have?
- Is the impact you hope the program will have something that can be measured?
- What types of instruments can be used to measure impact? (e.g., surveys, focus groups, etc.)
- How many times can you reasonably ask your participants to give feedback?
- How do you (or can you?) reliably follow up with participants months or even years after a program has concluded?