User:Econterms/WMF Theory of Change

WMDC should include some framing of from these sources in its 2023-24 annual grant request, according the meta/budget documents. Here is some speedy background.

• This is a term of art and practice, not a general field of study. It's specific to not-for-profit orgs which need to state their goals/objectives/methods, and measures such as program evaluation. The organization using it can't just say "we're producing widgets by the thousands because it's profitable to sell them."
• De facto it applies to a model of social change.
• Emphasis on change is slightly tricky for us, as we are trying to maintain a working process that adds to or improves content in the public domain. The word "maintain" is not in the right category, it seems, and perhaps should be avoided in a "theory of change".
• Theory of Change talk should convey/explain what methods it uses to be effective, and what the objectives are. Are you trying to change the world? international development? public health? human rights improvement? List the goals and why your proposed steps would help.

From w:Theory_of_Change:

• "Goals, and lower-order Objectives which, if achieved, are expected to result in the Goals being achieved. Theory of Change extends beyond Goals (commonly named Outcomes in Theory of Change terminology) and Objectives to include Impact – the anticipated result of achieving stated goals."
• Terms: Goals, Objectives, Impact, Outcomes, maybe also "methods", maybe also measurement concepts ("we counted participants and number of articles edited". "We talked with this many scientists." "we were interviewed by a journalist.") Also "stakeholders".
• Terms: Inputs (we had this venue and this budget for food and these volunteers and staff and this budget for travel and refreshments.)
• The framing was developed in the context of "the challenges of evaluating complex community initiatives." That is there are many contexts and pathways of challenge and opportunity and effectiveness and blockage. And not just outcomes, but "sequences of outcomes". Complexity is also mentioned in the Casey foundation text; or a fluid environment, or a environment which may impose surprises.
• Terms: strategies, assumptions, testing of assumptions
• I did not finish that article yet.
• The term "logic model" overlaps the term "theory of change"; see meta:Learning_and_Evaluation/Logic_models. convey factors and preconditions and outcomes or results. Incorporate the idea that some data collection will help test/validate/verify the theory of change
• Logic models terms: Inputs, Participants, Activities, Direct Products, Outcomes or Impact, Factors (in success) (Source: [1])

Casey foundation writeups.

• "a useful theory of change will help define or clarify the same basic components." These are: (a) the goals; (b) proposed implementation of strategies/actions, with who and how; (c) sequences of outcomes of the actions (a "pathway of change"; (d) key beliefs, assumptions, relationships, hypotheses, and durations
• Extended writeup from 2004 by Organizational Research Services: [2]
• One clear form of display is the "Outcome map" shown in that document (p19). Strategies listed horizontally in circles, with outcomes from each right below, then arrows and chains of effect, and at the bottom a community goal. The example goal is for children to be healthy and ready to learn when they go to school -- a complex goal.
• Warning: The most intense of these has lots of opaque abstractions jammed together in boxes with arrows, DoD-style. In that vein, more examples, harder to follow, but with more graphical intensity, are here: [3]
• this document has lots more. [4] Most of these theories of change would affect individuals, families, communities, systems, and organizations. We can focus on organizations perhaps. effects can apply to their norms, capabilities, capacity, resources, internal policies, mindsets, practices, leadership, and data/information available to and from them.

Vashantin and Jessica and Davit video by WMF

• measurement, metrics -- they show some of the layout in case of getting teachers to use Wikipedia activities in teaching in Bolivia

• More is here in Taplin and Clark (2012):
• Additional terms there include intervention and quality review
• They embolden these words: outcome, causal framework, interventions (meaning program/initiatives), indicators (of outcome/success, often quantitative), rationales, assumptions, written narrative, long-term outcome (LTO), strategy (a coordinated series of interventions), activity (actions making up an intervention),

Ideas for WMDC budget

• We might say, about editathons: we know from experience that our partner orgs have useful knowledge that can be conveyed on Wikipedia, and participants often feel satisfaction from posting/editing there. They understand better, afterward, what Wikimedia's about, and when to trust its information, and how to improve it.
• make plain yet again that our activities are designed to increase coverage and participation of underrepresented topics.
• might make plain that we want to assist public health and public institutions and open-source and other goals ; and reduce public disinformation or uncertainty about basics
• goal: improve public understanding of Wikimedia, expand content on Wikimedia, improve quality of content on Wikimedia, improve public traction against misinformation; encourage widespread adoption of open-source software, especially our own. (* Are our goals complex? Well, we have several overlapping goals.)
• One tactic (I mean, strategy) is to get federal agencies an GLAM insts to use Wikimedia and MediaWiki, another is to hold editathons, conferences, demonstrations, workshops, teach-ins ; another is to work on the software per se; another is to improve sharing of knowledge among wikimedians. Those are all deep strategies with mini-steps within them. E.g. that we develop the skills to hold editathons, and we are receptive to participants of the community, and that we partner with experts, specialists, orgs.
• A long term goal could be media literacy, specifically Wikimedia literacy. Another: expanded/improve public domain materials. And we can/should refer to our region, its people and its institutions. A challenge we face is running editathons far from DC, e.g. DE and WV.