Quarterly evaluation report

Y2Q4: July-September 2013

Highlights
Open Briefing secured our third consultancy contract, a major study for the Remote Control Project worth 3,225. We published a major study into armed drones in China, India, Iran, Israel, Russia and China that was very well received. We created a marketing and communications team and work began on a detailed marketing strategy for Open Briefing. We overhauled our Android app. Progress was made on seven out of 11 objectives in the last quarter and overall we are on target with eight of those objectives.
Table 1. Summary of progress achieved to date against each stage 2 objective.

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 Publish 90 Open Briefing publications Expand the team to 35 members in total Raise 190,000 Generate 9.5% of income from sources other than trusts and foundations

% of target achieved

Progress over last quarter

On target?

19%

33%

48%

44%

50%

75%

37%

33% 74% 29% 22%

X X

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1. Respond to 100 intelligence requirements from civil society organisations

Open Briefing has so far responded to 19 intelligence requests from civil society organisations during stage 2 (19% of target). Three of these were during this quarter and came from the Remote Control Project.

2. Make six significant interventions in key peace and security debates

Open Briefing has so far made two significant interventions in a key security debate during stage 2 (33% of target). One of these was during this quarter: a major study into armed drones in service with or in development by China, India, Iran, Israel, Russia and Turkey. Our research was used by the Remote Control Project to prepare evidence to the House of Commons Defence Committee. The study went viral on Twitter and received press coverage in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Italy and Switzerland.

3. Attain 3,000 subscribers in total

Open Briefing has a total of 1,444 subscribers to its e-bulletin, social networks, podcast and other outputs (48% of target). This is up from 1,233 subscribers at the end of the last quarter. Our e-bulletin still has the most subscribers (546), followed by Twitter (395). 1500 1400 1300 1200 1100 1000 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 10/12 11/12 12/12 01/13 02/13 03/13 04/13 05/13 06/13 07/13 08/13 09/13
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 1,579 unique monthly visitors to the Open Briefing website during this quarter; down from an average 1,869 visitors during the previous quarter. The average unique monthly visitors over stage 2 so far is 1,769 (44% of target). Although above target for this point in the three year cycle, this is now the third quarter in a row that numbers have dropped. The cause of this is still unclear but it may be that users are accessing our material through other means (as evidenced by the steadily increasing numbers of subscribers and our good online influence score). We will be completing our new marketing strategy over the next quarter and it is hoped that once implemented this will result in increasing website visitors once more. Central to this strategy will be producing more content and enhancing our social networks, which will hopefully drive more traffic to our website. Open Briefing | 2

4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 10/12 11/12 12/12 01/13 02/13 03/13 04/13 05/13 06/13 07/13 08/13 09/13
Figure 2. Number of unique visitors and visits to the Open Briefing website.

Visitors Visits

5. Receive 12 media mentions

Open Briefing received six media mentions in this quarter (50% of target): As Iran counters West, Afghan civil society is contested terrain, Democracy Digest, 1 August 2013. New report lifts the lid on the development and spread of armed drones, Examiner, 20 September 2013. New study co-written by former Canadian Forces intelligence officer looks at UAVs and unmanned aerial combat vehicles From China, India, Iran, Israel, Russia and Turkey, Ottawa Citizen, 20 September 2013. Remote-control warfare a new report by Open Briefing, Offziere.ch, 20 September 2013. Wires brief, Defence Report, 25 September 2013. Drone warfare: a global danger, openDemocracy, 26 September 2013.

Part of our developing marketing strategy includes actions designed to increase our profile generally and with key journalists and bloggers specifically.

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 47/100, including a Google PageRank of 5/10. This is the same as during the previous quarter. Our current online influence score is 45/100 (75% of target).

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60 50 40 30 20 10 0 10/12 11/12 12/12 01/13 02/13 03/13 04/13 05/13 06/13 07/13 08/13 09/13

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

7. File 1,000 items under the regional and issue intelligence desks
The Open Briefing intelligence desks have filed 369 items to date (37% 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 conflict and diplomacy 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 still needs to be given to the UK national security, Europe and Polar regions desks.

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

20

40

60

80

100

120

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

8. Publish 90 Open Briefing publications

Open Briefing published a major study into armed drones in China, India, Iran, Israel, Russia and Turkey during this quarter. We have published 30 publications overall during stage 2 (33% of target).

9. Expand the team to 35 members in total

There are currently 26 members of the Open Briefing team, including staff, volunteers and advisers (74% of target).

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10. Raise 190,000

Open Briefing has raised 55,660 towards our 2012-15 budget (29% of target). This includes a 7,000 surplus from stage 1, 47,500 in grants, 340 in public donations and 820 profit from consultancy work.

11. Generate 9.5% of income from sources other than trusts and foundations
2.1% of our income over stage 2 has so far come from non-grant sources (22% of target). During this quarter, we secured a consultancy contract worth 3,225 (480 profit) from the Remote Control Project.

Summary of planned work

Weekly political and security risk briefings Detailed order of battle for Russian ground forces. Briefing paper on Russian ground forces. Intelligence brief on Qatari aid to Sudan. Intelligence brief on political and security risks in Greece. Forecasts for insecurity and conflict in Africa. Intelligence analysis handbook. Open source intelligence training courses. Open Briefing style guide. iOS Open Briefing app. Links with private sector intelligence and risk companies.

Chris Abbott, Founder & Executive Director 11 October 2013

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