A Narrate productIn alpha
Fabrik
A loom for impact work. Figures, stories and sources stay tied together, from the first question to the report.
Fabrik is the platform we build ourselves. At Narrate we advise and train. Fabrik is where that work comes together: what you want to achieve, what you measure, what you learn and what you show.
Not to be confused with Microsoft Fabric. Read the difference
Why we build it
People in impact work often finish a template late in the evening, one that never quite fits. Spreadsheets and dashboards count what can be counted. The rest stays in your head.
Fabrik should carry that rest: layers, links, assumptions and doubt. Then you no longer have to hold the complexity on your own.
If not now, the loom gets built by someone who will sell it. We would rather it be built by the people who will use it.
Who it is for
Fabrik is for people who want to understand and explain impact, not only count it.
Programme leads
You keep sight of what you want to achieve, and see where things go differently from the plan.
Those who monitor and evaluate
You keep indicators, observations and lessons in one place, with the source alongside.
Funders
You look into the chain and its assumptions, rather than only getting a report at the end.
Networks and advisers
You offer Fabrik to the organisations you work with, each in a walled-off space of its own.
Five perspectives, one workplace
Fabrik shares Narrate’s five perspectives. Every space in Fabrik looks through all five, next to monitoring, evaluation and learning.
Discovery
Seeing what is going on: the surroundings, the question and who belongs to it.
Leadership
Planning and adjusting course, with goals and the chain from input to impact.
Improvement
Working better and differently, based on what you see and learn.
Engagement
Bringing in participants, rights-holders and stakeholders.
Accountability
Showing what happened to the people it concerns, with the source alongside.
How it works
Five steps, from the first question to what you share. A tick is there already, an open ring is on the roadmap.
1. Set up your space (There now)
A space for each programme or project, with the people who belong to it.
2. Draw your chain (There now)
From input to impact, with the assumptions you make on the way and scenarios for when things change.
3. Choose what you measure (There now)
Indicators from recognised frameworks or your own, with a definition held in Maktoob.
4. Look and learn (There now)
Observations and evaluations next to what you expected. So you see what works and what does not.
5. Share with those it concerns (On the roadmap)
A report or small site for participants, funders and rights holders, with the source behind each figure.
Maktoob underneath
Fabrik speaks the language of Maktoob. That is the shared vocabulary under Narrate and Fabrik: a curated set of concepts, relations and references. An indicator, an evaluation approach or a framework means the same in Fabrik as it does on this site and in our projects.
What is there now
A first version is running. It is not yet public and it changes every week. This is already in it:
A workplace of your own
Every organisation has its own walled-off environment, with a space for each programme or project.
The chain from input to impact
Your theory of change with indicators, assumptions and scenarios. So what you expect sits next to what you measure.
Monitoring, evaluation and learning
Observations, evaluations and lessons sit together, not in three separate files.
The source with every figure
Terms and links are recorded in open standards. So you can follow where a claim comes from.
AI that says what it did
Whatever a language model changes is recorded as the work of AI. You can always see what a person did and what a model did.
On the roadmap
This is where we are building towards. It is not finished yet, and we give it no date.
Learning online at your own pace, as an academy for impact management.
A free basic version, and prices that take purchasing power into account.
Room to answer back: people who are described can respond, in a form the system takes in.
Reports and small sites you share with the people they concern.
Connections to your own data sources and to AI assistants.
A guild of practitioners with a say in Fabrik. The founders then hand over the helm.
What Fabrik never does
A few limits are fixed, even when crossing them would pay.
Five limits
- Sell your data, or use it to train models without your consent.
- Turn thin work into a fine story at the click of a button.
- Squeeze everything into one score or ranking, as if things that cannot be compared still add up.
- Work for weapons, war or mass surveillance.
- Present one method or way of seeing as the right one.
How it is built
For those who want to know what is under the bonnet.
Four choices in the build
- Each organisation has its own data, walled off from the rest. You only see what is yours or what has been shared with you.
- Concepts and relations are held in open standards: RDF, SKOS and JSON-LD. So you are not locked into Fabrik.
- Language models run only on the server, never in your browser. Every change made by AI carries a label.
- We build towards the GDPR, the AI Act and ISO 27001. Those are goals, not certificates we already hold.
Questions about Fabrik
Can I use Fabrik yet?
Not on your own yet. A first version is running, and we are testing it with a few organisations. If you would like to take a look, let us know.What does Fabrik cost?
That is not settled yet. The plan is a free basic tier, with prices that take purchasing power into account.Has Fabrik anything to do with Microsoft Fabric?
No. Microsoft Fabric is a data platform from Microsoft. Fabrik is our own platform for impact work.What does Fabrik do with my data?
It stays yours and is walled off from other organisations. We do not sell it, and we do not train models on it without consent.Do I have to follow a particular method?
No. Fabrik knows many evaluation approaches and does not crown any of them the right one. You choose what fits your question.
Fabrik and Microsoft Fabric
Two names that look alike. Microsoft Fabric is Microsoft’s data platform. We use it to bring data from separate sources together for clients. Fabrik is our own platform for impact work. They are two different things.
Fabrik and Narrate
Narrate is the brand. Fabrik and Sada are Narrate products, and Maktoob is the shared vocabulary underneath. What we learn in our projects goes into Fabrik. What Fabrik teaches us, we take back into our projects.
Would you like to look along or build with us?
Tell us what you work with now and what chafes. Then we show you what Fabrik can already do, and what it cannot yet do.