An Online Impact Assessment Tool for Research Information: some preliminary concepts

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Information Management Working Group of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), 6–9 September 2000, Bergen, Norway. The online development information service id21 has been communicating development research to a global audience of policymakers for over three years. It was established in 1997 to make policy-relevant research findings accessible to decision-makers, particularly in the South. However, evaluating the ways in which this type of information feeds into policy processes remains elusive. This paper presents preliminary ideas on the design of an online feedback methodology modelled on focus groups, as well as the challenges foreseen, with the aim of eliciting feedback and comments from colleagues. The first section discusses the background to assessing the impact of information projects; the second section discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the focus group approach, while the third section outlines some of the methodological challenges involved in designing an online feedback tool.