Last week, Janet discussed some of the challenges of optimizing information flow and the need for expertise location. Today we look at how we can use content to pinpoint experts.

Sites like WebMD are certainly useful.  But sometimes when we’re sick, we actually want to go to a doctor.  We don’t just want some generalized medical information.  We want someone who really knows medicine to give us his or her expert opinion about our particular case.

This same reasoning applies in business.  No matter how well we try to capture institutional knowledge in our various document repositories, much of the most valuable information in our organizations remains locked inside the heads of subject-matter experts.  So whether we’re looking for insight into a technology, a customer, a vertical market or a geographical territory, sometimes we need to talk to an expert. (more…)