What is the knowledge community?

The knowledge community, or ‘KC’ as it is commonly known, is a website that provides free and easy to use communications tools to people to help them share, learn and work together.

It connects a wide range of people, groups, organisations and information in a way that is designed to make it easy for people to find who or what they are looking for, taking into account a variety of different perspectives and points of view.

The knowledge community is not a clinical service offering advice and support for vulnerable people with health and social care needs, nor does it contain clinical or confidential patient information.

Go back to the top of the page

Who is the KC for?

The KC is aimed at anyone with an interest or responsibility in supporting positive changes in health and social care services and in the wellbeing of vulnerable people who use them. This includes, but is not limited to:

• people with mental health problems
• people with learning disabilities
• people with physical disabilities
• older people with health and social care needs
• children and families with health and social care needs, and
• people with health and social care needs in the criminal justice system.

Go back to the top of the page

Who uses the KC?

The KC is used by:

• people who use health and social care services, and their family and friends
• people working in statutory services – not only health and social care, but also general health services, housing, education, prison and probation, and the police
• people working in voluntary organisations
• academics and students, and
• employers, who have a responsibility for people’s health and wellbeing.

Go back to the top of the page

What do people use the KC for?

The KC provides people with simple and easy to use tools enabling them to find, share and connect with other people. People set up groups to support networking activities. This helps people to plan and develop work together more effectively. They also debate, review and recommend what works in practice.

Go back to the top of the page

Who developed the KC?

The National Institute for Mental Health (NIMHE) developed the KC in partnership with key stakeholders and leading social software developers Headshift. It was launched in November 2004.

Since April 2005, the Care Services Improvement Partnership has further developed the KC in partnership with key stakeholders and leading web developers Ichameleon.

Go back to the top of the page

Why is the KC being redeveloped?

We have listened to what people say about their experience of using the KC. People said that the KC should be more engaging, easier to use and be support them to perform common tasks such as sharing and finding information.

Go back to the top of the page

What improvements have been made?

We have improved the design and presentation making it more engaging, social and fun. We have changed the way information is organised making it easier to navigate around and reducing the chance that users will ‘get lost’. Most importantly, we have also improved the user experience by making it simpler and more easy to use.

Go back to the top of the page

How have people been involved in making the improvements?

We are committed to inclusive working and have actively sought to involve people in designing and shaping the new KC. A wide range of people have been involved in a variety of activities over the past 12 months. We ran focus groups to assess the strengths and weakness of the existing KC and scope requirements for the new KC. A representative steering group collaboratively prepared tender documentation and assessed bids from developers. We also ran a series of consultations and surveys on the new designs. During the summer we ran workshops to test the usability of the final prototypes. Read more here www.csip.org.uk/kcconsultation

Following the launch in November 2006 we will evaluate the development work. This will include an assessment of how people have been involved in the development process.

Go back to the top of the page

What do users say about the new KC?

Throughout the development process there has been a groundswell of support for the improvement from users of the KC. During the development users said that they can use it with ease and enjoy a positive experience in doing so. Users also said that they can use it more effectively, reducing the time taken to perform common tasks. Finally, users said that the new KC helps them to better connect with other people to share, learn and work together.

Go back to the top of the page

Why can I not access the KC?

We are relaunching the KC at http://kc.csip/org.uk on Friday 24 November 2006. All our registered users will receive an email with details of how to access the new KC with their new password. We have decided to do this overnight 23-24 November due to the volume of emails we are sending.

If you have never used the KC before you will be able to register for free at http://kc.csip/org.uk on the 21st November 2006.

Please note that all files that have been uploaded to the former KC are still available. The former URLs are still valid. For example, http://kc.nimhe.org.uk/upload/filename.doc

Go back to the top of the page

What will happen to all of the information I put on to the old KC?

All of the information that people have added to the ‘old’ KC will be made available through the new KC.

We have temporarily closed the KC to enable us to complete the detailed work to move data from the old KC to the new KC.

If you have added a file to the KC, please note that these are still available. The former URLs are still valid. For example, http://kc.nimhe.org.uk/upload/filename.doc

Go back to the top of the page

When the new KC be relaunched?

The KC will be available again Friday 24 November 2006 at http://kc.csip/org.uk.

Go back to the top of the page

How do I access the KC?

Anyone can access the KC at http://kc.csip/org.uk.

Only members can share information with others. Only members can access certain information, which is restricted to members.

Membership is free and open to all. It takes less than a minute to complete a straightforward on-line registration form. All we ask for is your name and a valid email address.

Go back to the top of the page

Are there any restrictions on how I can use the KC?

The KC is an open, creative and stimulating place – giving people the opportunity to share and reflect ideas and experiences. It also has a practical focus, which is to provide a shared space for collaboration leading to the improvement of health and social care services.

Whilst the system is guided by a spirit of openness and transparency, we will take a zero-tolerance approach to defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive, or illegal materials posted by users.

Go back to the top of the page

Who can I contact to find out more about the KC?

If you would like to know more about anything in this briefing, please get in touch.

Rowan Purdy
Knowledge management lead, Communications and knowledge services, CSIP
Phone 07852 175 374 Email rowan.purdy@csip.org.uk

Simon Pearson
Information management lead, Communications and knowledge services, CSIP
Phone 07884 473 499 Email simon.pearson@csip.org.uk

Go back to the top of the page