Corporation for Public Broadcasting Civic Networking
Project
Davis Community Network -
A Civic Network as a Strategy for Building a "Smart" Community
PROJECT ELEMENT: Evaluation
Description:
The evaluation will fill two functions:
1) provide project management
feedback during development of the project (formative evaluation); and
2) determine the effects of the project on the community and on the targeted
needs (summative evaluation). Both elements of this evaluation try to
provide a better understanding of the ways in which those with something at
stake in the community (community-based groups, staffs of public agencies,
elected public officials, citizen activists and volunteers) gain from or
are challenged by what the project does and how it comes into being. The
project will be evaluated through the experiences of the stakeholders.
At the end of the project, the following reports will be delivered:
- stakeholder satisfaction in the new civic networking services;
- difference in stakeholder attitude resulting from specific project
components;
- assessment of penetration into the targeted stakeholder
communities;
- use of the new information and analysis tools, and an assessment of
their effectiveness in improving problem-solving and consensus-
building around water and environmental issues;
- technical evaluation of the tools;
- rate of increase in quantity of information available to general
public;
- user assessment of quality and usefulness of information;
- quantitative data on workshop attendance, volunteers recruited,
hours of volunteer time contributed.
Evaluation Team Members:
Team Leader: Joan Gargano (UCD-DCAS)
Keith Ott (County of Yolo)
Vicki Suter (UCD-DCAS)
Geoffrey Wandesforde-Smith (UCD-SunTREC)
Timeline
Current Status Summary:
The Evaluation Team has researched evaluation methodologies (including the
Concerns-Based Adoption Model, the Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network
Indicators Model, and the Colorado Advanced Technology Institute's Economic
Outcomes Evaluation Methodology). The team has drafted an evaluation
strategy, including a process, and with the assistance of each of the CPB
project teams (GIS, Volunteer Management, Document Database, and Outreach)
has identified criteria for measuring the effectiveness of the project
toward reaching the goals which have been defined. In addition, the
evaluation techniques and instruments to be used have been tentatively
selected.
The focus for August 1997 through January 1998 will be to:
- finalize the measurement criteria;
- identify external forces which would affect reaching the goals as defined
(those forces not within the project's control);
- identify data to be collected, sources, instruments, and processes;
- collect data;
- conduct first interim evaluation.
See
Evaluation Plan for details.
Detailed Status Reports:
7/31/97
1/30/98
10/31/98
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