New year, fresh start - Knowledge Hub Team

We’d like to start 2014 by wishing all our Knowledge Hub members a very happy new year. We hope you’ve had a great festive season and come back to work feeling refreshed.

We’re at the start of an exciting new chapter for Knowledge Hub in 2014 and we’re really looking forward to working with you to grow and develop the platform throughout the year.

Growing the knowledge base - tell your friends!

One of our key aims in 2014 is to grow the Knowledge Hub’s membership. We already have a broad range of members from local government, central government, the voluntary sector and beyond.

With over 163,000 members, we are the UK's largest digital collaboration platform for the public sector. But we want to build on that knowledge base and welcome even more experienced and skilled individuals into Knowledge Hub to share their expertise and learn from existing members.

So, if you get some value out of Knowledge Hub and you know someone else who might too, why not spread the word? Tell your friends and let’s grow Knowledge Hub together.

Developing the technology

We’ve always said that Knowledge Hub is all about the people – its members. It’s not about the technology. The platform is simply the enabler to help you achieve your objectives. However, having the right tools to do the job is important, so we are planning some upgrades over the coming months that we hope will help you get even more from your Knowledge Hub experience.

Working in partnership with you

2013 was a difficult year for the Knowledge Hub, but thanks to your amazing support, we’re ready for a brighter 2014.

As you know, over the last six months, we’ve been keen to hear your feedback and understand what you like about the Knowledge Hub, what you think could be improved, and what you would find useful in future. Here are some of the things you told us…

Likes

• KHub is an excellent source of information and peer support.
• There’s a wealth of useful information.
• It has great value for sharing ideas and thrashing out legal interpretation.
• It’s not just a library; it’s good for sharing practice.
• It provides opportunities to save money on face to face meetings.
• It’s great for making connections to experts in their field.

Room for improvement

• It lacks some sort of organisational tool/folder structure in the library.
• The events section is underdeveloped.
• It can be quite hard to find things, as there’s such a lot here.
• A number of people have had issues with the text editor.
• The conversation listed in the ‘what’s happening?’ section doesn’t show in the group activity stream/notifications.
• There have been various annoyances with email notifications.

Suggestions for the future

• Library folder structure
• Video conferencing/webinar facility
• Most active threads listed on the group home page
• List unread items at the top of the forum
• Polls
• Better management information and statistics for group facilitators
• Improved mobile access
• Content curation options
• Project management tools

You’ve also provided some good ideas around the commercials. The Knowledge Hub does have to become self-sustaining in 2014, but we are committed to working with our members to develop the best approach to this.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the discussions over the last few months. Your input has been invaluable. Of course, we won’t be able to do absolutely everything – and not all at once – but be assured that we’ve listened carefully to what you’ve said and you will see some of the changes you’ve suggested early in 2014. We’ll update you with more news on progress soon, so watch this space!