Opening ILRI’s knowledge and research
Initial reflections on results, outcomes and
impacts of adopting open
Peter Ballantyne
Open Knowledge for Agricultural Development Convening
East Lansing, 5-6 February 2013

Content
1. Opening ILRI’s knowledge
2. Thinking about outcomes and
impacts

(Research) business as
usual doesn’t work

Business as usual – ask a farmer
What’s your
I’ll go find Feed
some
main problem technology

Business as usual – look on the shelf
What feed Planted forage
technologies have Urea treated straw
you got? Bypass protein
OK, let’s try
those

“Our findings indicate that
business as usual feed
‘promotion’ and
interventions are not too
promising.”
Alan Duncan (ILRI)
“If you do what you’ve
always done, you’ll get
what you always got.”
Mark Twain

Business not ‘usual’? Open the research!
1. Co-create and co-learn in open multi-
stakeholder platforms
2. Open up to knowledge from the (un)usual
people
3. Make research knowledge, events, processes
and platforms ‘open’

1. Join innovation platforms
Spaces for diverse
actors to engage in
dialogue, to jointly
identify, learn
about and address
issues
Multiple
knowledge
Innovate and co-
learn with
communities

2. Open up to (un)usual voices
Community
perspectives
Beyond reports
Look and learn
Empowering
Social learning

Participatory radio

‘Happy Strategies’

Sandboxes …

3. Open our research
Open research
‘Working out loud’

Open planning – events and thinking

‘Open’ events – all the discussions

Open projects – work in progress

Open presentations

Open photos

Open reports and repository

Open source

Open data

Open to re-use

Open for feedback

Working in the open!
“bringing activities out of closed repositories
and applications [and events and processes],
and pulling them into the open increases the
likelihood of learning information earlier.”
- Stowe Boyd:
http://blog.podio.com/2011/08/01/working-
out-loud-make-work-open-to-make-it-better

Some indicators …
Web services views 12,207,737
12,000,000
9,000,000
8,183,453
'Open'
6,000,000
4,769,214
2,990,394
3,000,000
-
2009 2010 2011 2012

12.9% Composition
22.0% 24.2% web services
views
24.9%
15.5% 11.2%
5.6% 'Open'
23.2% 29.7%
Social media
42.9% Google Books
Repository
33.3%
31.2%
Website
13.6% Intranet
6.0% 3.6%
Total 2010 Total 2011 Total 2012

What’s our Theory of Change?
outputs outcomes impacts
Openness: Research: Communities:
Content Accessibility Empowered
Knowledge Visibility Better-fed
Resources Responsiveness Richer
Platforms Effectiveness Educated
Apps Efficiency Informed
Processes Inclusiveness
Mindsets Quality
Behavior Transparency
Uptake

Some indicators of openness?
Publication citations and impact factors?
Object views and downloads?
Co-creates?
Metrics of open resources in repositories?
Engagement – comments, connections, edits …
Composition of research design processes / events
Value addition and re-use / uptake?
Outputs ?

Theories of Change?

Open data and ‘citizens’
• Citizens as beneficiaries: receive improved service through
improved actions.
• Citizens as partners: co-creating development outcomes
usually through intermediaries.
• Citizens as empowered actors: able to shape own access to
developmental outcomes.
Source: Fostering a Critical Development Perspective on Open
Government Data: Workshop Report, April 2012
http://public.webfoundation.org/2012/04/ODRS/ODR-Brasilia-
Meeting-Report.pdf
Impacts?

OER ‘value proposition’
May “contribute to creating a revolution in education”
May offer cost savings and economic efficiencies
Contributes to make “information and knowledge more relevant,
accessible, and useable” for all
Facilitates active roles for learners in educational processes; it
generates “more effective learning environments”
The transparency of OER “places social pressure on institutions and
teaching staff to increase quality”
Source: Exploring the Business Case for Open Educational Resources. COL, 2012.
http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/detail.aspx?PID=421
Outcomes ?

Open Access
Can amplify and improve the research process
A key part of research infrastructure - full accessibility and utility
of articles critical in design of the research system
Driver of scientific productivity - OA can help researchers do
their work more efficiently - work faster
Can speed translation of ideas into innovative new services,
products, and other commercial ventures.
Source: Joseph, H. 2012. The impact of open access on research and
scholarship: Reflections on the Berlin 9 Open Access Conference.
http://crln.acrl.org/content/73/2/83.full
Outcomes ?

Potential outcomes of ‘open’ actions?
Cost savings, efficiency and product acceleration [of
service providers]
Empowerment and engagement [of ‘customers’, of
partners?]
Greater transparency [of decisions, of actors …?]
Access, availability, visibility [of content]
Return on investment [by funders]
Improved quality [multidimensional - of education,
research, government …]
Leading to …. ?

Q&A and Discussion
1. How do you assess and measure the openness
of outputs? And the results of this openness?
2. What types of openness outcomes, in
education or research eg, do you seek and how
measure?
3. How might we assess the impacts of open
knowledge on communities / learners / society?
What one thing should AgShare do?

better lives through livestock
ilri.org
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