PHAP articles: new features to improve knowledge sharing

After being launched in January this year, the PHAP member articles have quickly become among the most popular content on our website – both for members and for other visitors. To improve accessibility to the articles and the discussion surrounding them, we have introduced two new features: PDF versions of the articles and comment aggregation.

The articles have so far only been available formatted for the web. However, a number of members have contacted us with requests for more printer-friendly versions of the articles. Consequently, downloadable PDF versions have now been made available for all past articles.

The articles have become an effective vehicle for knowledge sharing among members, and with a growing interest in the articles from non-members, for the humanitarian community as a whole. Moreover, they have led to considerable discussion among both PHAP members and other interested professionals – in our member forum as well as through our social media channels. This has especially been the case on LinkedIn, where the articles have been taken up in several discussion groups.

Since it becomes cumbersome for individuals to monitor the discussion in all of the different channels, we have decided to collect all of the discussion in the member forum on the PHAP web site. For each article, there is a forum topic which is accessible via a link at the bottom of the article text. Alongside the discussion among PHAP members, you will now find all entries concerning the article from LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. All members who subscribe to PHAP forum updates will this way automatically receive any new comments in their email inbox. To see how this looks, view the two recent discussions on autonomous weapons and international humanitarian law and environmentally displaced persons (PHAP membership required for access).

The editing support provided by the PHAP Secretariat has been an appreciated service to those members who have expressed an interest in contributing their work for publication. This support includes both help in reworking existing texts to more effectively communicate the contents as well as advice on writing new texts and what topics to pursue that would be of particular salience for the professional humanitarian community.

We are currently working with a number of members on articles to be published over the coming months, but we would like to hear from more of you. If you are interested in submitting an article, or if you want to discuss a topic for further development, please do not hesitate to contact us.