Making Impact Assessment Open-Source?

Should the effort to develop social impact assessment standard resembles more like an open-source movement? Would this direction make more sense in order to pursue our elusive goals of defining the common standard, getting all relevant players to measure social impact and share results?

Current collaborative effort is mostly confined to few major players in defining the assessment standard, it's unknown if the usage can reach significant scale. Indeed, it's common knowledge that it's difficult to coordinate such effort, but the question is why not opening up the platform to experiment? In ideal case, open-source movement may help to quicken the process of identifying the core standard that every organization can share while retaining the flexibility to adapt according to diverse missions and strategies.

It's a long shot over a big challenge and potential technical problems admittedly can't be understated, but taking the first step isn't impossible. Current leaders in social impact assessment can initiate the platform and start sharing the tools that they already use. All key players are welcomed to contribute, tweak and test the tools, essentially making it an open experiment with the aim to identify common standard. I think Mifos by Grameen foundation is similar effort at a smaller scale, it encourages microfinance institutions to use and develop a common open-source management information system to track and compare performance.

FSG envisions a future where there's a common social impact assessment standard and results are widely shared to inform effective strategy in driving social change, open-source movement could be of great help to make that transition. It's not a guarantee that it will compel all to use the same tools and share results but it's an important milestone nevertheless.