Launch HN: Emvi – Knowledge management for companies and teams of all sizes | Hacker News Reader

Launch HN: Emvi – Knowledge management for companies and teams of all sizes

emvi.com

4 pointsdschramm7 comments

Hello HN!

Emvi is our approach to a easy-to-use knowledge base for companies and teams of all sizes and we finally reached public beta. You can use it to write down everything you need to remember, share or document and make it discoverable for everyone else in your organization.

We found that existing tools structure content in a tree-like hierarchy which tends to limit internal reach and scalability. For Emvi, we implemented a system that is closer to sites like Wikipedia, Medium or even YouTube - articles are linked internally, curated to lists and grouped by tags.

Our goal is to make it accessible for both technical and non-technical users and to keep the content maintainable for the long term.

Features we already include:

* Powerful search with filters and sorting options

* Activity feed and notifications

* WYSIWYG-editor with real-time collaboration

* @-mention any element (articles, lists, tags, users or groups)

* Full article change history

* Fine-grained rights management for users and groups on a per article basis

* Mobile support

* English and German UI

* Multiple translations for articles and list titles

Over the next few months we are planning to add comments, integrations, embeds, import/export and markdown support. We already have an API which can pull articles from Emvi, visit our blog to see it in action. Shortly after leaving beta state, we will offer a self-hosted version aswell.

Feel free to share your thoughts and questions in the comments.

Cheers, Daniel

How does an organization migrate from its existing systems to Emvi? Is there a gradual adoption path?

We do not have an import feature yet, but that is definitely coming. Where would you like to migrate from?

You mean your company actually has a kb that is filled and up to date, worth migrating? I want to work at your company!

I guess no matter how great the product, the issue is with people. Hardly anybody will keep up writing static content and maintain it so it stays relevant. The best knowledge base is probably a great Q&A system with an active community.

If your current knowledge management system is too empty to your likings don't bother buying a new knowledge management system. It won't help. Instead, give your employees and customers a central place to ask questions and grow a culture that answers them as a first priority. Make that searchable and throw away your knowledge management system...

I agree, the culture in an organization makes or breaks a knowledge base. We try to lower the barrier of entry by not giving an article a definitive place, meaning you don't have to think about where to put something when writing a new doc - similar to Wikipedia.

could you explain what is the thought process that is this knowledge management have better approach from competitor.

Other knowledge bases and wikis tend to rely on a tree-like hierarchy and setting access permissions with a top-to-bottom approach. In Emvi permissions are set on per article basis, so they can have company-wide reach and still be edited by a small team only. We think this scales better with growing organizations, because silos are removed by default.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

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