Under Narrate and FabrikShared vocabulary
Maktoob
The shared vocabulary under Narrate and Fabrik. A curated set of concepts, relations and references, so that we use the same words in the same way.
Maktoob is Arabic for ‘written’. What is in Maktoob is settled: what a word means, how it relates to other words and which source it comes from.
Why a vocabulary of our own
In impact work, the same thing often goes by different names, and the same word sometimes means something else. What one funder calls an indicator, another calls a measure. Frameworks overlap, and each has a list of its own.
Without a shared language, figures and stories do not join up. Maktoob sets that language down once. So this site, our projects and Fabrik mean the same thing.
What is in it
Four layers that rest on each other.
Concepts
The words we use, with what they mean and which words they replace. In Dutch and in English.
Taxonomies and thesauri
Shared classifications and word lists, with the words that mean the same. They link concepts to the approaches, frameworks and standards they appear in.
Ontology
How concepts relate. An indicator measures something, and an observation belongs to an indicator. An evaluation approach rests on a way of looking at knowledge.
References
Recognised lists and frameworks, such as the Sustainable Development Goals, GRI, IRIS+ and the ESRS. Each with its source.
7
ways of looking at knowledge, from positivist to Indigenous and decolonial
50
evaluation approaches, each tied to the way of looking it rests on
How Narrate and Fabrik use it
On this site
The glossary and the list of frameworks come from Maktoob. You can read them, and also download them as a file for your own work.
As a file: begrippen.json, raamwerken.json
In Fabrik
Every indicator, approach and source in Fabrik points to a concept in Maktoob. So a figure in your report means the same as it did in your plan.
What is there now
Maktoob grows with every project. This is already in place:
Everything is held in open standards: RDF, OWL, SKOS and JSON-LD. Anyone who wants to use the language can do so without Fabrik.
The building blocks of measuring: indicator, metric and observation.
The layers of evaluation: paradigm, approach, model and method.
Methods and instruments for gathering data, linked to the approaches they suit.
Shared taxonomies and thesauri, linked to evaluation approaches, frameworks and standards.
Crosswalks between frameworks: which indicators cover the same ground, so you measure once and report to several funders.
A shared list of actors: rights holders, stakeholders, funders and those who carry out the work.
Evidence and provenance as data, in the open standard PROV-O: what was established, how and by whom.
Reference lists such as the Sustainable Development Goals, GRI, IRIS+, ESRS, country codes and sector codes.
The glossary and the frameworks on this site, also as a file.
On the roadmap
This is where we are heading, without a date.
Story elements: voice, quote, story and consent, with their provenance.
Maktoob open to search, as a knowledge graph you can browse from concept to concept.
Links with other open lists and vocabularies.
Peers who suggest new concepts and relations.
What we hold to
Three principles decide what goes in.
Three principles
- No method is the right one. Maktoob describes each approach from its own way of looking, including the approaches that do not set the tone.
- Say where it comes from. Every concept and every reference has a source.
- Open, not locked away. What is in Maktoob, you can take with you.
Questions about Maktoob
What exactly is Maktoob?
A shared vocabulary: a curated set of concepts, shared taxonomies and thesauri, the relations between them and the sources they come from. It is the language under Narrate and Fabrik.Why is it called Maktoob?
Maktoob is Arabic for ‘written’. What is in it has been written down and is settled, with its source.How is it different from a glossary?
A glossary says what a word means. Maktoob also records how words relate and which source they come from.Can I use Maktoob myself?
Part of it, yes: you can download the glossary and the frameworks as a file. We are opening up the rest step by step.
Would you like to help shape the language of impact?
Is a concept missing, or do you use a word differently? Tell us. That is how Maktoob grows.