Y2 Q2 - Quarterly evaluation report (January-March 2013)

Quarterly evaluation report Y2Q2: January-March 2013

Highlights •

Open Briefing was awarded a £12,500 grant from the Network for Social Change.

•

We secured our first consultancy client, with a contract worth £930.

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We passed the 1,000 subscribers milestone.

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Open Briefing’s online influence score continued to slowly but steadily increase.

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Overall, progress was made on seven out of 11 objectives.

Table 1. Summary of progress achieved to date against each stage 2 objective.

% of target

Progress over

achieved

last quarter

8%

▲

17%

-

35%

▲

58%

▼

0%

-

75%

▲

33%

▲

Publish 90 Open Briefing publications

20%

▲

Expand the team to 35 members in total

69%

▲

Raise £190,000

13%

▲

15%

▼

Objective Respond to 100 intelligence requirements from civil society organisations Make six significant interventions in key peace and security debates Attain 3,000 subscribers in total Attract 4,000 unique visitors a month to the Open Briefing website Receive 12 media mentions Achieve an average online influence score of 60/100 File 1,000 items under the regional and issue intelligence desks

Generate 9.5% of income from sources other than trusts and foundations

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1. Respond to 100 intelligence requirements from civil society organisations Open Briefing has so far responded to seven intelligence requests from civil society organisations during stage 2 (8% of target). One of these was during this quarter and related to the prospects of a Sudanese ‘Arab Spring’ and the possibility of opposition unity in the country.

2. Make six significant interventions in key peace and security debates Open Briefing has so far made one significant intervention in a key security debate during stage 2 (17% of target). This was during the previous quarter.

3. Attain 3,000 subscribers in total Open Briefing has a total of 1,038 subscribers to its e-bulletin, social networks, podcast and other outputs (35% of target). This is up from 862 subscribers at the end of the last quarter. Twitter still has the most subscribers (334), followed closely by our e-bulletin (320).

1100 1000 900 800 700 600

2012-13

500

2011-12

400 300 200 100 0 Oct 12

Nov 12

Dec 12

Jan 13

Feb 13

Mar 13

Figure 1. Number of subscribers to the Open Briefing e-bulletin, social networks, podcast and other outputs.

4. Attract 4,000 unique visitors a month to the Open Briefing website There were an average 2,019 unique monthly visitors to the Open Briefing website during this quarter; down from an average 2,606 visitors during the previous quarter. The average unique monthly visitors over stage 2 so far is 2,313 (58% of target).

These numbers are lower than hoped for and declining – the cause of which we must identify and address.

On the positive side, in March 2013 the Open Briefing website was featured on the WeLoveWP website (a gallery of the best designed WordPress-based websites).

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4000 3500 3000 2500 2000

Visitors

1500

Visits

1000 500 0 Oct 12

Nov 12

Dec 12

Jan 13

Feb 13

Mar 13

Figure 2. Number of unique visitors and visits to the Open Briefing website.

5. Receive 12 media mentions Open Briefing did not receive any media mentions during this quarter.

6. Achieve an average online influence score of 60/100 Open Briefing uses a basket of online influence metrics (Klout, Kred and PeerIndex) to measure social media influence and Google PageRank to measure relative website importance. Using these, our average online influence score across this quarter was 45/100, including a Google PageRank of 5/10. This is a slight increase on the 44/100 achieved during the previous quarter.

The average online influence score over stage 2 so far is 45/100 (75% of target).

60 50 40 30

Average score

20 10 0 Oct 12

Nov 12

Dec 12

Jan 13

Feb 13

Mar 13

Figure 3. Open Briefing's average online influence score.

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7. File 1,000 items under the regional and issue intelligence desks The Open Briefing intelligence desks have filed 329 items to date (33% of target).

The graph below gives an indication of the relative priority given so far to each desk. The political violence and dissent desk and resource security and climate change desk have filed the most items of the issue desks, and the Middle East desk and Asia and Pacific desk have filed the most items of the regional desks.

Greater attention needs to be given to the UK national security, Europe and Polar regions desks (the Conflict and diplomacy desk was only launched at the start of stage 2, which accounts for the relatively low number of items filed by that desk).

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Political violence and dissent Resource security and climate change Nuclear issues Conflict and diplomacy UK national security Middle East Asia and Pacific Africa Americas Europe Polar regions

Figure 4. Number of items filed under each Open Briefing intelligence desk.

8. Publish 90 Open Briefing publications Open Briefing published two publications during this quarter, both intelligence briefs. We have published 18 publications overall during stage 2 (20% of target).

9. Expand the team to 35 members in total There are currently 24 members of the Open Briefing team, including staff, volunteers and advisers (69% of target). Interviews for new contributing analyst and associate researchers to join our team will be held during the next quarter.

10. Raise £190,000 Open Briefing has raised £24,843 towards our 2012-15 budget (13% of target). This includes a £7,000 surplus from stage 1, £17,500 in grants, £310 in public donations and £33 profit from consultancy work.

During this quarter we were awarded a £12,500 grant from the Network for Social Change. We are also awaiting the outcome of a grant application totalling £45,000 over three years.

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11. Generate 9.5% of income from sources other than trusts and foundations During this quarter, 0.3% of our income came from non-grant sources, compared with 2.5% during the last quarter. This was from a consultancy contract worth £930 (£33 profit after researchers’ fees paid) with the Remote Control project initiated by Network for Social Change and hosted by Oxford Research Group. The brief was for scoping exercises and reports on special forces and private military and security companies.

1.4% of our income over stage 2 has so far come from non-grant sources (15% of target).

Summary of planned work over next quarter •

Intelligence briefs on Turkey’s policy towards Sudan, Qatar’s relations with Sudan and the potential Sudan-Kenya pipeline.

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Briefing paper on Israeli diplomacy.

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Intelligence analysis handbook and style guide.

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Open source intelligence training courses and material.

Chris Abbott, Founder & Executive Director 4 April 2013

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