The question of "Who Ya Gonna Call?" inevitably leads to the rousing sing-song answer of "Ghostbusters!" from the film of the same name - but it's not always that easy to locate the expertise you need within your organization.
Large companies are fortunate to have a tremendous pool of available talent that are willing to share their skills and insights. The implementation of an "Expert Locator" tool can allow you to connect with these people based on both their credentials and contributions from a variety of perspectives including:
* Recognized Skills and Competencies
* Prior Experiences
* Associations and Networks
* Intellectual Capital (Output, and Input)
In the same vein, building on Chris Bautista's earlier LinkedIn post, I find that social networking sites can also serves as a "People's Tool" for locating experts within the extended professional network. While the search features aren't as robust as one could imagine, LinkedIn still provides a useful way to seek out expertise (particularly when combined with the Groups filter).
Last week, I participated in a Social Learning Workshop led by Elliott Masie and he pointed us to a very Cool Tool. Check out the way relationships can be viewed in the inspired graphical interface offered by introNetworks (http://www.intronetworks.com/testdrive.aspx).
For me, in addition to "at-a-glance" usefulness of introNetworks graphical display of data, the ideal tool would incorporate two perspectives:
(1) Data points derived from an individual's resume, along with self-described skills and interests, and
(2) Much like Google algorithms serve up tailored ad messages, a "smart" locator could also mine hidden expertise from a system-driven scan of company wiki contributions, blog posts, and networked connections to others in the company.
What capabilities would your ideal "Expert Locator" include?
Thursday, June 25, 2009
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This is a very interesting subject, and one that is going to become more and more important. I'm not sure if the introNetworks tool uses email connections as a proxy, but there are techniques to graphically display connections between employees in a network based on their email traffic.
ReplyDeleteSee http://jheer.org/enron/
In the Enron example cited above, researchers looked at who was emailing who within Enron and generated network clusters to identify critical players and decision makers. I believe the same technology can be filtered by subject matter. So, if you're a global energy company and you want to find the expert in your company on natural gas exploration, you can use email traffic on that subject to find the expert.
The ability to quickly locate and communicate with an expert within your company is critical to just-in-time learning and creating a learning culture.
Sean Murray
http://www.realtimeperformance.com/blog/
Greg, thanks for the 'Cool tool' props. We have enjoyed working with The Masie Center for several years now, providing the social network for conference attendees. It is only this year that it is being picked up as a tool to support a social learning agenda. The interesting aspect of this new use for the platform is that it seems to hit a sweet spot as a perfect way to make connections, promote collaboration and engage participation. These are three goals that all of us have in our businesses, right? I applaud Elliott for seeing this a long time ago and embracing the concept of of 'social' ahead of the pack.
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