The IHE is supporting industry freelancer, Helen Blood to deliver a concept for a industry-wide online collaboration platform.

Work is now well underway with JAMP Digital to deliver a new web-based communications platform dedicated to the Highways/ITS community.

The ‘talkmobility’ concept is based on a ‘by the community, for the community’ approach and will serve all those delivering services and schemes across highways networks.

It will be a not-for-profit platform with no advertising, focused on knowledge sharing and ‘filling the gap’ as industry members retire and take knowledge with them that has not been transferred to the next generation.

“We have engaged with industry to gauge a level of interest and the concept has been very well received by Department for Transport members, local authority highways teams and the private
sector. The initial concept was based purely on a forum-based platform supported by white papers, guest blogs and case studies; however we have been asked if we can include a ‘find a freelancer’ area and a ‘new products/marketplace’ section to help the community find information and colleagues simply and quickly,” says Ms Blood.

The platform will not compete with current industry websites, which hold specific information and documentation for members or commercial websites that provide news and journalistic features. The vision is for ‘talkmobility’ to act as an umbrella platform, feeding from and to websites provided by industry bodies and private sector organisations.