Knowledge Base - Evaluation of potential solutions

[staceyrebekahscott]

Overview

We need to decide what type of solution we use to create and manage our Knowledge Base. In this issue, we will add pros and cons for a solution we evaluate, to be shared and decided upon by the PM CoP group.

HackforLA is a volunteer run organization which means that significant institutional and tribal knowledge gained by a volunteer is lost when they leave us. Consequently, new volunteers must relearn historical, strategic, operational, and tactical knowledge in an unstructured way. This creates a burden for the existing team members as well as increases the steepness of the learning curve and increases the ramp up time for a new volunteer.

Action Items

• Choose a knowledge base solution and add it to a comment below.

  • Add a comment as soon as you decide on a solution, to avoid duplicating research

• Review the solution and add your feedback to your comment.

• If you evaluate a solution that will not work for our purposes, explain your reasons as it is helpful to know why we should not consider it.

• Choose another solution to evaluate (if you have time).

Must Have for software solution

• Must be free
• Must have a search function that looks inside of the files, not just the titles
• Ideally it can be hosted on GitHub Pages (so it is easy to install)
• Will consider externally hosted option if:
  • It is free
  • Has more options than are available from a GitHub Pages site.

    Should have

    ability to add labels or tags that would keep us from having to set up a heretical navigation

number of users

for people to view : unlimited editors (limited access): 200 active editor (all access): 5 editors: (ideally as many non active editors as we need) - nice to have

Goal is to have a discussion at the CoP Meeting on July 8, 2022 to decide on a solution.

Places to start:

• A guide to the best knowledge base software
• The 11 Best Open Source Knowledge Base Software for 2022
• The Best SaaS Knowledge Base Software [2022]

Spreadsheet

• Comparative Analysis

[staceyrebekahscott]

I am evaluating Book Stack: https://www.bookstackapp.com/

• Free, Open Source alternative to Confluence.
• Source code is hosted on GitHub
• Organized like a stack of books
  • Books-> Chapters-> Pages-> Draft Pages-> Bookshelves
  • All color coded
  • Clean, easy to navigate interface
• https://www.bookstackapp.com/about/confluence-alternative/
• https://github.com/BookStackApp/BookStack

[epierotti3]

I'm evaluating OpenKM: https://www.openkm.us/en/knowledge-management-system.html

This may not be a good solution for us. 1) It's unclear to me what features are available to us in their free version, despite that this program is listed as Open Access. 2) I think Bonnie said she didn't want a KM solution that is heavily-tiered or hierarchical because this can get out of hand very easily. Based on these two factors I would not necessarily recommend OpenKM.

[Aveline-art]

@aveline-art Please let me know your input on this

[bilkishgautham]

I am evaluating Slab Analysis so far.

Pros

• Slab's Startup plan is free for non-profits and educational use. Pricing details and services offered can we found here
• 30 day money back guarantee.
• Slab can be integrated with Github, Asana, Dropbox, Figma, Google Drive, LinkedIn, Trello, You tube and some more apps. Details can be found here

[Rabia2219]

I will be evaluating Slite.

• Their knowledge base UI is not boring and can host videos
• They facilitate integration with Google Drive, GitHub, Figma, Slack and more
• There are several documentation templates available including process documentation, project documentation, software documentation
• Their pricing is competitive
• They offer a huge discount to non-profits

Click the following to expand:

UI


Integration


Templates


Plans


TADA!


[salimays]

Exploring HelpGuru: free up to 3 users

Stack Over Flow: Free for up to 250 users for non profits

Listing these options to reduce search time: Not free but 50% for non profits.

• Notion. It's $4/month for non profits and integrated with Github.
• Get Guru is $2.5/month for eligible non profits.

Paid options HelpJuice Axero

[rossbb]

Documize "Community" looks like it could be a good fit.

https://www.documize.com/community/

Completely Free

[bilkishgautham]

• Confluence is a paid tool. However they offer a Free plan for up to 10 users, 2GB of storage, and Community Support. You can view the pricing details and FAQ here.

• If there is dissatisfaction after trying out the product they offer a refund within 30 days of payment for annual subscriptions. No questions asked.

[ExperimentsInHonesty]

https://projectmanagementacademy.net/resources/blog/make-or-buy-analysis/

[Aveline-art]

Hi. Throwing my hat into the ring.

Featuring Docusaurus, the latest in documentation website. It features:

• Markdown, HTML, and React options for creating documentation
• Innate tagging system that allows filtering of documentation
• Optional built-in search functionality which looks through the entire website for the text you need
• Fully compiles into static webpages for deployment in various hosts, such as GH-Pages
• A flexible plugin system that allows the addition of third-party features, including those created by you!
• 100% free and highly customizable

Want to explore a website created with Docusaurus? Simply visit https://docusaurus.io/, Docusaurus's main website*.

Note: Not all functionalities in https://docusaurus.io/ comes out of the box. Note2: Is sightly more advanced than say...mkdocs, so this might require a developer to perform an initial setup.

[kcoronel]

A few options considered with Bonnie:

Repo:

Option 1: Knowledge base, no hierarchy. The details within file. We could organize so that in a spreadsheet fields, we listed what type of asset/tool it is. [i.e.front matter files.] Downside: Someone recorded a video and saved it within the repo, but now they want to shorten the video, they can edit the video, but would they be able to edit the link used throughout?

Option 2: Create a repo called knowledge base -- don't organize by directory Search function - general templates that display results in a certain way and search inside markdown files - type in a search word to make results appear

Wiki: can't search it, but have search kit in tool itself

Google Native Search

Google search API - can get the results and display them someplace. Hit API for search and link within. Have an index to show all guides