Kwiditi offers new online information resource for the voluntary sector
Howard Lake | 10 January 2003 | News
Kwiditi says that it monitors 100 Web sites relevant to the voluntary sector and presents the key developments in digest form via the Web and e-mail to paying customers.
Kwiditi, the phonetic spelling of “Quiddity” meaning the essence of a thing, presents information in seven categories, such as new funding information, trustee and governance matters, and social inclusion. It also offers information relevant to specific regions of England. The Liverpool based operation aims to help “to make information manageable” for voluntary sector decision makers.
Information is presented in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, rather than simple Web pages. The source of each news item is credited with a Web link, and Kwiditi staff add their own short briefing note. New information is e-mailed to paying subscribers once a week: each message is concise listing a series of links to the relevant new items on the Web site.
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The site is run by a group of researchers and analysts who have voluntary sector experience in England.
Access to the site costs £25 per month for registered charities and £46 per month for consultants and local authorities. Kwiditi is offering a free four week trial period without obligation.
The site is very new so it is difficult to assess its value. The extensive use of PDF felt odd, although it could be explained by the company’s attempts to ensure its information was not misused or distributed without its permission. Some of the navigation was difficult, such as moving from a document or summary of search results back to the original menu of categories. Several categories still had no items in them when we visited, but this is not surprising given that the site has only just launched.
Such current awareness services can certainly be valuable, but as more appear it is worth questioning how many are needed by the voluntary sector. UK Fundraising notes how few voluntary sector news Web sites collaborate.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.