Module: Setting Up a Successful Climate Knowledge Platform: A 9-Point Checklist

What do you need to consider before setting up your climate knowledge platform?

1. Being clear on your objectives (01:16 in the video)

Ask yourself:

• Why is this platform needed?
• What are the most important objectives for you?
• Is an online knowledge platform the best way of achieving them?

2. Identifying a distinctive niche (02:10 in the video)

Ask yourself:

• How will your platform be different?
• What other websites and platforms are already covering your topic?

3. Narrowing down your audience (02:51 in the video)

Ask yourself:

• Who are your priority target audiences, at least initially?

4. Understanding your audience (03:43 in the video)

Find out:

• What kind of information does your audience need, when, and for what?
• Where are they getting this information from now, and what are they struggling to find?
• How much time do they have to search for things, and then read them?
• What languages are they comfortable with, and how much technical jargon can they handle?
• How easy is it for them to access the internet – are they doing it in the office, at home – on a computer, tablet or smart phone?

5. Generating great content (04:41 in the video)

Ask yourself:

• Who will generate the content on your platform: a core editorial team, partner organisations, your visitors? Or will you pull content automatically from other websites?
• How will the people responsible for the content be incentivised?
• Who will carry out quality control on the submitted content, and what will be the criteria for this?
• How will you make sure the content pipeline keeps flowing over time?

6. Creating effective online communities (06:24 in the video)

Determine:

• The strategies and tools you will use to get users engaged, and keep them engaged.
• Whether it will be possible for you to organise face-to-face meetings as well as online discussions.

7. Getting your staffing right (07:43 in the video)

Do you have people with the following skills? Do they have enough time and motivation to keep the platform going?

• Editing
• Design
• IT
• Subject Knowledge
• Marketing
• Management

8. Clarifying governance arrangements (08:21 in the video)

Ask yourself:

• How and by whom will the every-day decisions be made? E.g.: is this blog post ready for publication?
• How and by whom will the big decisions be made? E.g.: what hot topics will we focus on this year?
• Will the persons responsible be sufficiently available and be able to sign off quickly enough to allow for a smooth running of the platform?

9. Creating a sustainable business model (09:24 in the video)

Ask yourself:

• How will this platform be funded in the long term?