Promoting and assessing value creation in communities and networks: a conceptual framework

This paper from Ruud de Moor Centrum outlines a conceptual framework for evaluating the value created by social and community learning networks.

"A useful framework should make it possible to assess value creation in a way that links specific activities to desired outcomes. Such linkage not only affords causal attribution for outcomes to the activities of communities and networks; it also gives some guidance about how to promote the creation of value proactively. To this end, our framework includes both a set of relevant indicators for data collection and a process for integrating these indicators into a meaningful account of value creation. This requires a specific genre of stories, which we call value-creation stories. We include a toolkit with templates for telling and collecting such stories." (Wenger, Trayner & de Laat, 2011)

Contents

• Communities and networks
• Framing narratives
• Cycles of value creation in networks and communities
• Measures of value creation for each cycle
• Value-creation stories
• Building a picture of value creation
• Toolkit: Telling stories about the value of communities and networks