What's New in Torque
April 20, 2022
Hey, we're back with another exciting episode of What's New in Torque!
LEGO Build a World of Play wiki
Typically, competition wikis are built weeks after the application deadline, the data being provided by humble CSV file to Open Tech Strategies. But using Submittable's API, the Build a World of Play wiki is already built and available for viewing (and the application deadline is still four weeks away!). The wiki contains all the registrations and the 26 applications that have been submitted to date. The data is refreshed every Tuesday and Friday so you can watch the wiki "grow" right up to the May 17 deadline.
Build a World of Play Registrations
Click on Lists and Collections in the Build a World of Play wiki and you'll see a summary of all 2101 Registrations organized by country of the registrant.
Stage 2 updates to Racial Equity, Stronger Democracy and Equality Can't Wait
As Stage 2 materials are being collected for the Racial Equity and Stronger Democracy competitions, they're being organized in a new format designed to make it easier to review the Finalists. In the wikis, you'll see blue tabs for the Revised Proposal, Appendices and and Diligence, green tabs for the Original Proposal, Evaluations and Analysis:
The new layout has also been applied to the Equality Can't Wait wiki.
PDFs load faster
It would seem like having to wait for a PDF to render on a web page shouldn't be that big a deal. They're big files after all and they have to move through the Internet plumbing with all the other things that need to find their way to your computer. But the rendering of some Stage 2 attachments seemed practically AOL dial-up slooooow. No longer! Thanks to OTS' Frank Duncan, PDFs load much, much faster . . . no more than a few seconds for the bigger files.
Help videos for Racial Equity
Jeff Ubois has produced two quick videos to help Racial Equity users navigate the wiki and troubleshoot login issues.
Download CSV feature
In the sidebar of each wiki is a link to a page that will allow you to download user-selected data from any competition:
- Click the Download CSV link in the sidebar.
- On the Torque CSV page select (or deselect) fields from the Fields list.
- Give your download a new filename (or use the default).
- Click Download CSV button.
RPA-Columbia wiki
Each of the last three years, Melissa Berman, President & CEO of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, has taught a class at Columbia Business School titled Global Philanthropy. The class is "intended to give MBA students the tools they need to assess opportunities and solutions as well as to become thoughtful, effective philanthropists." As part of the curriculum, small groups assess a subset of Lever for Change proposals and make recommendations for funding to their classmates. For the first time, students are evaluating proposals in a custom wiki rather than using PDFs as was done in previous years. And, at the end of the course, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors will donate $110,000 to one organization selected by the students.
Upstream contributions to MediaWiki
Torque is built with the same software used to power Wikipedia. It's called Mediawiki. When improvements and fixes are made to Torque that could also benefit Wikipedia, those fixes are pushed upstream to improve the MediaWiki software itself. Thus, when Torque gets a little bit better, Wikipedia gets a little bit better too.
Office Hours
Have a question about Torque? Need some data? Feel you don't get to spend enough time on Zoom? Join Jim McGowan for Office Hours, 3-3:45PM every Monday. See the Lever for Change shared calendar for details.
January 10, 2022
Happy new year and welcome to the second edition of What's New in Torque.
Incorporating Stage 2 documentation into Torque
We want you to be confident that Torque will always have the most up-to-date information whether you're managing a competition or curating proposals for a donor. This means that ALL Stage 2 data is accessible to you in Torque. Working with Kristen and Adi, we've developed a mock-up of what we think a typical proposal should look like with the tabs for the following (Bold = Stage 2):
- Revised Proposal
- Factsheet
- Appendices
- Diligence
- Original Proposal
- Evaluations
- Analysis
Based on feedback from Kristen's team, we're working on the second iteration of the mock-up which we'll share with you all early next week if not sooner.
Torque's API now exporting data to Airtable
Last month we told you we're moving data from the BSN Airtable base to Torque to facilitate search filtering. Now, we're returning the favor. Torque recently pushed all the data for the Stronger Democracy finalists into Airtable eliminating the need for manual entry. To quote Adi:
"This is a great start and has already saved future Adi so much time! . . . Everything I need for my workflow is perfectly in place."
The standard process for submitting data for upload (ETL) into Torque
OK, this isn't completely new . . . instead, it's more of a refinement. The ETL* process (for getting data into Torque) was standardized last year. However, as we learned from the Stronger Democracy Award competition, the twice-weekly timeline won't always align with competition management or donor needs. Understanding this, here's how we'll manage future data uploads:
- Data to be uploaded into to Torque should be added to the Dropbox folder by the end of the day Monday or Thursday. Data added by Monday will be uploaded on Tuesday; data added by Thursday will be uploaded on Friday.
- If this schedule doesn't meet the needs of the competition, please email Jeff and Jim with any special requests identifying:
- The type of data to be uploaded
- When the data will be available in the Dropbox folder
- When the data should be accessible in Torque
- Any special instructions
Based on workload, OTS will expedite special requests. While it may not be possible to meet every deadline, our experience with the Stronger Democracy demonstrated that early notice and good communication ensured that every request could be fulfilled.
*ETL stands for Extract, Transform, Load which is basically the fancy way of saying "putting data in Torque."
December 1, 2021
Once a month, we'll share a quick summary of what's new in Torque and the competition wikis. These messages will take no more than five minutes to read and will offer links to additional information when relevant. In addition, beginning December 13, we'll be offering Office Hours every Monday afternoon where you can join Jim McGowan (and/or someone from the Open Tech Strategies team) online to ask questions and see demos of new features. So, here's what new in Torque:
This Email Message
This is the first What's New in Torque update. Each update will be posted in the Torque Help wiki.
Torque User Groups
The number of Torque user groups has been simplified to eight and every user (there are 182 of us, currently) is now assigned to a single group (many had three or even four previously). Click here to see the naming and capabilities of the users groups.
Stronger Democracy Maps
Starting with the Stronger Democracy Award, interactive maps and visualizations will become a regular part of competition wikis. Here are two new Stronger Democracy maps:
Airtable to Torque Data Exchange
Data can now move from the Bold Solutions Network Airtable base to Torque. We've started with Achievement Leveldata (Awardee, Finalist, Semifinalist, etc.). Eventually, any time Airtable receives new information, Torque will be updated shortly after ensuring it will always be current.
Search Filters
When conducting a search in any wiki (but preferably in Global View), you'll see additional filters you can use to refine your search. We've started simply but more filters like subject area categories and geographies will be added soon.
Torque to Airtable Data Exchange
Torque can now push data to Airtable, too! The first effort will be populating the Bold Solutions Network Airtable base with all the data for the Stronger Democracy Award finalist candidates. This will eliminate the need to manually cut and paste data from Torque. Special thanks to Adi Menayang for helping make this possible!
Chicago Prize
Chicago Prize data has been added to Global View. While you won't see an Okta chiclet for a Chicago Prize wiki, search results in Global View will return relevant Chicago Prize proposals.
Torque Office Hours
Join Torque experts online to ask questions and learn more about how you can leverage the application to do your work better.
Every Monday (except holidays) beginning Monday, December 13, 2021
3-4PM CT Join Zoom