online communities for accountants

Posted 2 months ago by caspar
30/07/2008

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I was asked last week to provide feedback on the online community that the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW) has set up and of which I should confess I am a paid up member from a former life as bean counter.

I think they have done a great job at IT Counts (what the site is called) and thought it would be worth publically sharing my views:

The challenge with any community site is finding sufficient fresh interesting relevant content that its users find sufficiently compelling to encourage them to want to return on a regular basis. If the content and the topics are too broad the site tends to lose the interest of its readers as it doesn't address their issues; if it is too narrow, it presents challenges in terms of producing sufficient quality content.

A simple way for me to judge content suitability is the measure of how many comments get left on posts on a regular basis - what I observe on IT Counts is that there is a good flow of comments and postings which are a good indication of the content being suitable for the audience.

The site design is simple and effective - it uses all the space and allows for a consistent mental map so that I can continue to find key information as I navigate through the site

IT Counts is a great initiative to get CA's more connected and sharing information - the web is happening all around us and the advantage I believe moves with the innovators - ICAEW have taken a great step with this initiative.

I look forward to seeing how the site continues to develop and engage with its members (not always the most innovative of thinkers from my experience!)

caspar