CIBSE KNOWLEDGE PORTAL
Were you worried about the risks of such a project? Obviously, it is a bold step for any Institution to make all of its core technical guidance available online, and it raises questions about the fair use and sharing of this information. However, we strongly believe that the risks here are strongly outweighed by the extra value we can offer to our members, especially those outside the UK.
is required, order it by
clicking the link. Alternatively,
you’re at a site meeting and there’s disagreement
about a Building Regulation or standard. No problem: references
and links to the appropriate UK legislation are automatically accessed against the relevant subject on the
CIBSE Knowledge Portal. By putting the guides and other peer-reviewed technical information published by CIBSE literally at your fi ngertips, the frustration resulting
from a lack of immediate design information becomes a thing of the past.
And the Knowledge Portal is being constantly updated? Absolutely. A trawl through engineering libraries, especially those owned by individuals, soon makes one aware that, at some time or another, most designers use out-of-date information. You can’t fall into that trap when you use the Knowledge Portal.
What were the main challenges of the project? The technical challenges – ensuring that the high-level goals of the Institution were matched by the practical limitations of technology. By using a phased approach we have been able to improve functionality since the original rollout.
www.cibsejournal.com
What plans are there for the Knowledge Portal in the future? Proposed future improvements include increasing the amount of available content from non-CIBSE organisations, improving the coverage of non-UK legislation and re- formatting and organising the material, so that it is more conveniently structured and user-friendly, including more photographs and video presentations. The engagement of members will also
be vital to its continued success – and there is the potential to integrate it with social media and to use the platform to build communities, allowing members to interact with each other, while also including systems to enable user feedback for improvements and suggestions for new content. We would be delighted to hear from
our members about how the Knowledge Portal could be improved. To make your views known, email
cibsepublications@cibse.org CJ The only port of call
CIBSE launched the Knowledge Portal in November 2011 as an online tool, allowing unlimited access for members to search and download the full range of CIBSE peer-reviewed published guidance, abstracts of thousands of British standards that are directly relevant to the building services sector as well as providing links
to other relevant publications. The search functionality works across all
Knowledge Portal content, presenting the results in clear subsets – CIBSE, other documents and the British Standards Institution. Documents are interlinked, allowing users to follow cross- referrals from one document to another.
March 2012 CIBSE Journal 21
Access the Knowledge Portal at:
www.cibseknowledgeportal.co.uk
How successful has the project been so far? We are very pleased with the initial response to the Knowledge Portal, and the statistics [see the ‘Fast facts’ box, right] show that the Knowledge Portal has reached a large audience. And this is not just existing members taking advantage of the new benefi ts available to them – there has also been a steady number of new affi liate members joining through the Knowledge Portal, which is a very positive sign for CIBSE. It is particularly interesting that there have been visitors from more than 100 different countries.
FAST FACTS In its fi rst four months of use, the Knowledge Portal has secured some impressive results. As of 17 February, they read as follows:
19,763 – Total number of visits
123 – Countries that have accessed the tool; 28% of usage comes from overseas
181,035 – Total pages viewed
6.56 – Time of the average visit (in minutes) 17,707 – Documents downloaded
866 – Downloads of Guide A, the portal’s most popular document
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