To understand and improve their current abilities and maturity, organizations use diagnostic instruments such as maturity models and other assessment frameworks. Increasing numbers of these are being developed in digital curation. Their central role in strategic decision making raises the need to evaluate their fitness for this purpose and develop guidelines for their design and evaluation. A comprehensive review of assessment frameworks, however, found little evidence that existing assessment frameworks have been evaluated systematically, and no methods for their evaluation. This article proposes a new methodology for evaluating the design and use of assessment frameworks. It builds on prior research on maturity models and combines analytic and empirical evaluation methods to explain how the design of assessment frameworks influences their application in practice, and how the design process can effectively take this into account. We present the evaluation methodology and its application to two frameworks. The evaluation results lead to guidelines for the design process of assessment frameworks in digital curation. The methodology provides insights to the designers of the evaluated frameworks that they can consider in future revisions; methodical guidance for researchers in the field; and practical insights and words of caution to organizations keen on diagnosing their abilities.
This workshop responds to the incredible growth of corporate tech power -including during a deadly pandemic -and the growing need for tech workers of all stripes (including researchers/academics) to build grassroots power. This workshop's twinned themes of solidarity and disruption acknowledge that solidarity is vital but not sufficient to enact the structural changes we need. Disruptionin the form of sit-ins, strikes, refusal, and direct action-has become a necessary condition in the face of technology corporations' greed-driven expansion towards militaristic, techno-totalitarian futures. In this one-day workshop, we will bring together tech workers, researchers and activists from academia, industry, and community-based organizations to extend conversations that we began in two workshops last year. We will further explore avenues and approaches for action, particularly to support practitioners' and activists' objectives, and connect participants with concrete opportunities for on-the-ground action.
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