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This is: A Framework for Assessing the Potential of EA Development in Emerging Locations, published by jahying on the AI Alignment Forum.
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I would like to thank Max Daniel, Jan Kulveit, Alex Barry, Ozzie Gooen, David Nash, Rose Hadshar, Harri Besceli, Emiel Riiko, Florent Berthet, Jaime Sevilla, Chi Nguyen and Aaron Gertler for reviewing this post. Special thanks to Vaidehi Agarwalla for her immense help with copyediting and research assistance. Also thank you to Wanyi Zeng who inspired my research project and has offered generous support since its inception.
This framework evolved out of research conducted as part of the 2019 CEA Summer Research Fellowship. My research project looks at how EA should be developed and approached in Asia. My research mentors were Rose Hadshar and Jan Kulveit. Please note that this post is not endorsed by the FHI, CEA, Open Phil, or other individuals and organizations interviewed as part of the research project.
If you would like to support my work, I am currently looking for funding, advisors and collaborators. You can reach me at jahying.chung@gmail.com.
If you are short on time, the Summary, Background and Summary Table sections should provide a sufficient overview of the framework.
Summary
Effective Altruism is growing globally. In Asia, for instance, the number of groups has doubled in the last 2 years [1]. Both group organizers and core EA decision-makers have voiced different views and concerns on how (or whether) this growth should happen. In order to avoid overlooking major risks and opportunities, improve communication, and prevent frustration across parties, how might we get everyone on the same page and have productive conversations about developing EA in an emerging location?
This framework attempts to answer that question. It aims to provide a common basis on which different stakeholders can evaluate the potential of EA development in emerging locations. It arose out of expert interviews with core EAs who are actively thinking about community and movement building strategy, including staff at CEA and Open Phil, community managers within other EA organizations, and leading group organizers around the world.
This post will first outline the reasons to work on this topic, the value of the framework, and its current status and limitations. Then it will present the framework in the form of a summary table before going in depth into each dimension. Finally, I outline my next steps in applying this framework to Asian locations.
In short, the framework applies two types of analyses: group analysis and geographic analysis, and considers two perspectives: cause-generic and cause-specific.
In the group analysis, the framework breaks down the question of “how promising is this group?” into three aspects:
Group traction: what has the group accomplished so far?
Capabilities: what resources do they have?
Connections: how do they collaborate/coordinate with other EAs? How are resources transferred? Who do they most frequently interact with, and in what capacity?
In the geographic analysis, the framework breaks down the question “how exciting would EA be in this location?” into three aspects:
Existing Alignment: how much alignment already exists with EA ideas?
Talent: what types of talent exist here, in quantity and quality?
Business and Politics: how does power work here? What influential institutions exist here?
The analysis can be done from a cause-generic perspective and cause-specific [2] perspective.
The full framework has not yet been applied to specific locations and I expect to make adjustments based on feedback from group organizers and core EAs as it is applied and evaluated.
Background
Terminology
Throughout this post I will use the following terms which need some justification or clarification:
EA development: instead of ...
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