NCVO launches service to ‘change the way the voluntary sector does web

Today, on the KnowHow NonProfit website, NCVO launches ‘iKnowHow’ – a service that aspires to be the voluntary sector’s Wikipedia. The project, funded by the Nominet Trust, aims to open up the way the sector manages online advice and support materials, whilst also reducing the time and costs associated with web publishing.

iKnowHow will start with a pilot of three key areas of the KnowHow NonProfit website, allowing anyone in the voluntary sector to edit, add to or debate the content there. These areas are: collaboration, public service delivery and setting up a charity. If the pilot proves successful, the iKnowHow wiki will be rolled out to other areas of the site.

The end game is to change the culture of digital publishing in the sector – encouraging more and more people to help co-create the advice and support materials voluntary sector organisations need to survive.

The wiki is easy to use with an intuitive design, so that anyone can contribute, regardless of how confident they feel on the web. The hope is that a sector already used to sharing knowledge through social media will embrace wiki publishing much as it has embraced Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Contributors to the site will also be rewarded with Blue Dots, which can be redeemed against items and offers on www.bluedotworld.com

The iKnowHow wiki pilot runs through until June and NCVO will be sharing the learnings from the project later in the year.

Sir Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of NCVO, said: ‘iKnowHow is a new model for centralising and building on voluntary organisations’ vast knowledge and expertise.  We hope that it will address the need for accessible, cost-effective and comprehensive advice and support which people across the sector can play a part in, learn from and enjoy.’

Find out more about iKnowHow at: http://www.knowhownonprofit.org/help/about-us/iKnowHow The wiki is free to read but you will need to register to the KnowHow NonProfit website to make edits.