Tools Sustainability Dashboard
ETEN Tools Sustainability Assessment
—ETEN Innovation Lab
What These Scores Mean
These scores measure sustainability, not quality.
Think "Will this tool exist in 10 years?" not "Is it good today?"
Higher scores = better funding, adaptability, and organizational resilience.
Based on 7 key variables that predict long-term viability.
Relative scores (1-3) show how tools compare to each other, not absolute performance.
1. Integrated Bible Translation Toolchains
Solutions that work together to support the entire Bible translation workflow—from planning and drafting to checking and publishing—while allowing for multiple, flexible implementations in order to handle multiple modalities (text, oral, sign), multiple processes, and workflow automation.
2. Digital Archiving & Iterative Publishing
Solutions focused on the secure storage, revisioning (e.g. tracking changes), and long-term accessibility (e.g. publishing) of data for translation projects and reference resources in multimedia formats (text, audio, video, images) for both traditionally and iteratively published translations as well as work-in-progress.
3. Project Status & Progress Monitoring
Solutions that provide clear, intuitive, real-time, queryable status updates and reporting across project stages including project initiation, progress, pace, expected completion, and final delivery in order to track progress of major milestones (AAGs and EVC).
4. Capacity Building Resources & Training
Solutions that provide a set of practical, culturally-relevant resources, training modules, support systems, and effective discoverability mechanisms designed to empower local churches and communities to lead Bible translation efforts through capacity building and community ownership.
5. Linguistic Data Processing & Analysis
Solutions that provide advanced functionality—from orthography development to terminology management and data collection for AI—that ensure accurate processing and analysis of multimodal (text, oral, sign) linguistic data in Bible translation in low-resource languages.
6. AI Enablement & Language Data Support
Solutions that make AI practical and impactful for Bible translation by enabling the creation, adaptation, and application of community-generated, language datasets and models—bridging the gap between general-purpose AI and the unique multimodal, contextual needs of Bible translation.
Key Sustainability Variables
1. Financial Viability, Cost-Effectiveness & Funding Sustainability
How financially viable (including all funding sources) is this solution over its lifecycle, and what regularly measurable Return-on-Investment towards major milestones (AAGs and EVC) does it offer in terms of demonstrated strategic value, efficiency and impact when compared to other relevant options?
2. Technical Adaptability, Interoperability & Extensibility
How well does the solution (regardless of size) adapt to emerging technologies (e.g. AI), integrate with existing systems, and iteratively update or extend functionality in order to reduce the frequency of complete overhauls?
3. User-Centric Adaptability & Responsiveness
How effectively does the solution continuously incorporate user feedback and remain responsive to changing needs and workflows, ensuring intuitive design and long-term cultural relevance across diverse global contexts?
4. Global Accessibility & Local Adoption
Can the solution be effectively used across all regions, and what barriers—technical (e.g. complex scripts, oral, sign), cultural (e.g. localization, customization, training), or infrastructural (e.g. scalable, offline, mobile)—might limit its accessibility (open-access) or local adoption (e.g. security risks), and does it demonstrate alignment with unmet user needs (market fit)?
5. Open Collaboration & Organizational Continuity
What is the likelihood and impact if the current development team or organization loses interest or shifts focus, and who (e.g. cross-organizational trust, capability, and knowledge-sharing) as well as what mechanisms (e.g. open-source, documentation, technical maturity, operational capacity) are in place to pick up the baton and maintain continuity?
6. Technology Standards, Reusability & Developer Support
To what extent are the parts of the solution reusable across similar solutions, and how actively does the organization pursue transparency and collaboration to enable reuse, reduce duplication across organizations, promote best practices, and advance common open standards (e.g. tech stack, frameworks, platforms) to collectively maximize the amount of work-not-done across solutions and devices?
7. Identifying with the Collective Impact Alliance
How closely does the team or organization align their identity, priorities, and efforts with the shared values and collective strategic milestones (e.g. AAGs and EVC) of the broader Bible translation movement, rather than becoming overly identified with specific solutions which may not directly advance these collective objectives?