The release of ChatGPT in November and the imminent reality of artificial intelligence permeating our lives like never before has redirected the public’s attention to the ever-growing power of new technologies and the companies that wield them. Today, as part of our mission to provide support for civil society organizations holding tech power accountable around the world, we’re releasing two new resources: the RDR Knowledge Center and the RDR Scorecard Toolkit. These tools are both part of the RDR Research Lab, a hub for everything you need to learn how to use, adapt, and localize our approach to corporate accountability research. The hub was launched in October of last year.
In the Knowledge Center, researchers will find detailed information on how to apply each of our 58 indicators to assess company policies and their alignment with human rights. Anyone beginning a research project using this tool will be able to access detailed explanations for each indicator and its related elements, together with examples of how they have previously been translated into specific company scores. In addition, researchers can use this space to post comments and questions for the RDR team and other researchers.
Alongside the Knowledge Center, we’re also introducing our new Scorecard Toolkit, a web-based application where researchers can more quickly than ever before create the data management infrastructure needed to assess and score any company against our standards.
Previously, building data collection and management spreadsheets presented a high barrier for independent researchers who wanted to evaluate companies using RDR’s research methodology.
With this new tool, researchers will be able to set up the necessary materials to begin carrying out research in a short time, without needing specialized technical skills. They will be able to do so with the help of tutorials and explanations that will make following the RDR methodology only a tad more complicated than following your average cooking recipe.
More specifically, the Scorecard Toolkit will allow researchers to generate a data management infrastructure consisting of:
- Data collection spreadsheets: These are generated for each company selected for the analysis and include the specific services chosen for evaluation. Each data sheet has one tab per indicator, where each individual element is assessed.
- Scoring spreadsheets: These include two main components. The first is a data table featuring all the scores calculated for every company and service selected, along with individual company scoring tables. Using these scores, researchers will then be able to create bar charts and graphics to design their own scorecards showcasing companies’ performance. You can find tutorials and ideas in the “Analyzing your data” section of the Research Lab.
Until recently, the only option for many organizations who wanted to conduct RDR-like research was to go it alone, or almost alone, with ad hoc guidance from RDR. These new resources make it much easier to set up the research infrastructure and get expert guidance, which ultimately will help generate more corporate accountability research, faster. Already, these tools have allowed us to support recently published original research in Central and Southern Africa and South and Southeast Asia. Such studies set a baseline for tech accountability in markets where data about company practices is often nonexistent or hard to find.
Since I joined RDR as the Global Partnerships Manager in 2021, work has begun on 15 new corporate accountability studies, which in total evaluate more than 120 companies in 35 countries. By making our tools publicly accessible, we aim to encourage more civil society groups to carry out research that illuminates how companies behave in their particular environments, as well as how tech power is wielded across the Majority World.
As new and potentially perilous technologies permeate our lives, it has become more pressing than ever to scrutinize the companies behind the digital services we use. The launch of this triad of new research tools, including the Research Lab, is an important milestone not just for RDR but for the broader global movement to hold technology and telecom companies to account for respecting and promoting our human rights.
If you’re interested in carrying out your own research using our methods and standards, feel free to write us at partnerships@rankingdigitalrights.org.
