Being in this week’s ReMo vidyo call with @rosana , the topic of measurement came up. Namely, what does it mean to have impact in a Mozilla event and how to measure it?
You can watch the recording here: https://air.mozilla.org/reps-weekly-20160407/
Etherpad: https://public.etherpad-mozilla.org/p/remo-call-07-04-16
Right now there is a simple metric in place on how to consider ‘impact’: conversations started. I was wondering if the idea of measurement can be expanded somehow to also include the length and depth of conversations and the kinds of people engaged. If we engage a smaller number of people, but with longer, more meaningful conversations, could that increase impact in some cases? Would it matter to go after influencers (leaders in other open projects, journalists, political and business leaders) in particular? That’s not to say influencers should be the focus of these events, but that their inclusion can have a multiplier effect to the participation as a whole.
The second aspect is the social media impact. People with lots of social media followers are able to have a greater impact by virtue of their involvement. Would being an effective rep or ‘leader’ entail a ‘soft obligation’ to join and be active on social media networks?
@Ioana also noted that people in different communities use different networks: Twitter has less of an impact (relatively speaking) in Indonesia as opposed to Romania. Therefore, relying on shares/likes/tweets is not a definitive ‘metric’, but may be something to watch out for.
As a counter-point, there is an advantage in simplicity too. Metrics alone may not determine fuzzy ideas like ‘impact’. If you’re of this opinion, I’d like to hear from you too.