• Are the objectives of your project set out by a certain governmental policy or has the ‘call to action’ come from within?
• In any case, make sure that the objectives are capable of being met and that they will benefit the community (perhaps the call for installing new Web 2.0 technologies would have no effect on a rural community).

Response to Citizens

• Is your objective a direct result of a demand from the public for updated or improved service provision?
• If so, perhaps try to organize a more detailed consultation process to elaborate on what the community thinks the outcomes of the project should be.

Access to Technology

• Who is your target population? Does it matter if not everyone in your community can access this new project?
• Remember that a lot of these technologies may not be available to everyone in your community. Some people may not have the physical technology while others may not know how to use them.

Type of Content

• Given the audience, what type of content are you trying to offer?
• Will the public be merely consuming or will they be creating it as well?

Multi-Stakeholder

• Will you be requiring the help or resources of another organization?
• Collaborating with other stakeholders often involves mediating conflicting or different agendas, objectives and timelines.
• Make sure you clearly layout your objectives and allow other partners to present what they want to get out of a collaboration so that their objectives can be incorporated from the beginning.

How to Measure Success

• How do you plan to evaluate the success of your project?
• Does success translate to a certain number of people have visited the website, does it translate to a certain number of contributions, or maybe the number of times data was downloaded from your application?

• Do you have your own servers to host the project?
• Do you have the personnel to create these applications (if not will you be outsourcing the work)?
• How will you pay for the development time and server space?

Data Availability & Structure

• If your project requires certain data, do you have access to that data fairly easily; is the data structure compliant with industry standards?

Platform(s) Selection

• What platforms are available
• Things to consider, license, functionalities, documentation, development time, etc.

Compatibility/Sustainability/Liability

• Keeping in mind a community’s access to various technology, will one application be sufficient for everyone or will you need to create multiple versions for different devices and/or Internet speeds and/or operating systems.
• Keep in mind that these technologies (APIs, licenses, coding languages) can change very quickly and you may need to update your platform’s code with any new versions.

Privacy/Security

• How will you engage the community prior to launching?
• Will you have to consider hosting community workshops to help inform the public on how to use this new technology?

Media/Dissemination

• How do you envision getting the word out about your new project out to as many people as possible?
• Pamphlets, radio commercials, community workshops, social media?

Extending Data Across Platforms

• If you already have an online presence across various social media and web platforms, are you prepared to synchronize all of them for ensuing updates?

Timing

• Are there any considerations with respect to the proper timing of the application launch? For example, is a launch in the summer vacation better for public involvement given more people have the time to dedicate to your project?

• Did you achieve your objectives within the allocated time and resources?
• Where did you encounter problems or setbacks? Could you have better planned for this?

User Feedback

• First of all if you haven’t already given the public the chance to provide feedback, think of ways in which you could ask them for constructive criticism of your project.
• Have you received any feedback from the public who used your application/project?
• If possible within the confines of your project you could make certain changes to your project to address any problems. If this is not possible, take note of the feedback and keep it in mind for any upcoming projects.

Resulting Externalities (+ or -)

• Have there been any external outcomes of this project (e.g., facilitated educating the public concerning certain information, empowered the community to use certain data to create their own application)?
• Has your application allowed a local NGO or other organization to improve their services?
• Perhaps your VGI application means that you no longer require the services of someone that was previously in charge of collecting data.

Future Directions

• With the project underway (or completed), do you envision continuing, improving or expanding the project into new directions?
• Are there other branches of your organization that could benefit from a similar project?