My data

A couple of days ago a colleague working on an interesting new e-learning tool invited me to test an initial, yet unofficial version of that tool. I clicked on the link they had sent to me. A screen appeared which asked me for my full name, my e-mail address and my company. Every single field was mandatory, that is, I could not move to the subsequent screen without providing my name, my e-mail address and a company name.

That is a threshold. When you open a book or a newspaper, no-one asks you to send your name, your e-mail address or other personal data. You open the thing and you read it. The publisher can track the number of sold books - to some extent - the places where they have been sold, and that's it. Has anyone ever complained about that?

Interesting debate on evaluating human rights work

Who is evaluation of human rights work for? How about "strategic plausibility" as an evaluation criterion? How do we measure success when protecting civilians in conflict? These are the kinds of questions discussed in this web debate on evaluating human rights work. Very commendable!

Workshops that work: Six essential tips for facilitators

It is delightful to get plenty of positive feed-back on the workshops I design and/or facilitate. A few weeks ago one participant even described the workshop I facilitated as a "once in a lifetime experience"! Since I would love all workshops people attend to be useful, I have started asking participants to tell me what exactly they like about "my" workshops, so that I can share it here. Some of the points below have been made in earlier posts on this blog, others have come up in recent conversations.

10 things to know about evaluations

The UK Department for International Development (DFID) has produced this wonderful short guide for everyone who uses evaluations. Have a look at it and spread it around! It'll make evaluations more useful. The guide also refers to the Better Evaluation site, also highly commendable for evaluators and everybode interested in the topic. 

Emerging Evaluators meeting virtually and in real life

My occasional associate Wolfgang Stuppert is part of the Emerging Evaluators' Network of the European Evaluation Society (EES). He has invited me to broadcast this invitation to the First Virtual Conference for Emerging Evaluators. Here it is:

On 19 September 2015, the First Virtual Conference for Emerging Evaluators will take place. On that day, from 3 pm to 8 pm [Berlin time, I presume], more than 100 emerging evaluators will gather on-line to discuss the bright and not-so-bright sides of their profession.