The Specifics Please

Summary of #KMers Twitter chat March 30, 2010. For details, color, and to see who said what, see the full transcript.

Q1: What does ‘expertise location’ mean to you?

Find the right experts, with the right knowledge (I need) at the right time so I can learn to do a task
I like MITRE’s take of ‘connecting people to people, people to projects and projects to capabilities’.something to that effect (should be: “This capability connected people to projects to organizations and to their open document spaces, allowing staff to navigate across all these dimensions.” See background article)
Tapping into the expertise I need, even if I don’t know who has that expertise and without assuming you have to know the person before asking a question
Ability to find people based on their expertise
Locating and connecting with experts
Connecting correct info to point of need
Connecting people, getting answers to questions, and establishing credibility.
Finding the right person to bring knowledge & credibility to your point of view
When I don’t know what I need to know, but I believe that somebody with a certain expertise might be able to help
Being able to ask a question and get an answer from a person with knowledge and experience in the topic
To attract the attention of those who know what I need to know
Connect the ppl2ppl and the content will happen. Location of expertise equally as important as the location of the person.
Could be via open “keyword” search; pick lists (taxonomy); skill level; my work environment might even “push” experts to me
There are also different needs for expertise location. Specific needs (”I have a problem”) & general need (staffing a proj)
The problem with being the expert is the trade-off between facilitating knowledge exchange and doing your “day job”
- Very poorly
- We have a blended approach… elements of people, process and technology…
- Two key ways we practice expertise location: organic and structural
- Our KM search includes discussions, explicit knowledge, and people profiles (which often contain hidden expertise)
- My favorite ever was IBM’s Fringe (aka Bluepages+1). Allowed for social tagging of everyone in the org. (how Fringe works)
  - Something I have not thought of before – people tagging each other instead of self tagging. That would get interesting!
  - Twitter Lists is another form of that. Anyone can put you on a list and that in essence tags you.
  - Fringe eventually transitioned into Connections Profiles where a good chunk of the features are part of the core profiling Details here
- Combining the good old KMS with social networks / communities & expertise locators throughout the org(s)
- We try to connect people to via hubs – Communities of Practice (CoPs), chat, blogs, wikis, forums, CMS, second life
- Using SharePoint. Branded as ETSConnect. PPL update and publish their profiles. Next, need to help people make connections.
- Vetting experts occurs by the community leader, ultimately, but there usually is a clear path beaten to their desk already.
  - Allow community leaders to officially designate global experts… a more structured approach to expertise location
  - Allowing expertise to emerge by who answers questions and shares knowledge in a community
- Something to the effect of a ‘radar map’ that depicts your profile in the center & related profiles close to the center
- We have published roles & responsibilities for designated experts, and it is factored into their reviews.
  - Our recognized experts are held to a higher standard for sharing.
  - We are adding expertise designation to annual review forms
  - I don’t think “its on ur annual eval” is enough intrinsic motivation though it sounds good on paper.
- How do we make updating the profile as important (& automatic) as updating home address, phone, etc?
  - In a Services org (one small slice, I know), make staffing on projects dependent on keeping it up to date.
  - Starting w/ right where it hurts: their daily pain points
- I recommend Dan Pink’s new book “Drive” (about what truly motivates human behavior)
- Focus on finding experts through social networks / communities merging both strong & weak ties. Tools as enablers, too!
- Have active communities for all key topics, have experts in each one, and then rely on communities to provide expertise when needed
  - Avoid redundant communities so people can ask for help in one place. Once created, communities should be led, not managed.
  - internal champions, executive vocal sponsorship, healthy budget, these items help too
- Anyone know how Booz Allen Hello is working in practice (lots of good press) (see 5 Lessons Learned from Booz Allen
  - ask @meganmurray ? (side note: good example of expertise knowledge sharing on e2.0 platform)
- Has anyone tried ‘badges’ (similar to Foursquare) for profiles and expertise location?
  - ‘Badges’ is another form of tagging – Country, Region, Continent, Language, etc
  - Haven’t tried badges, but foursquare sure hit gold at South by Southwest music festival
- Finding experts in your company through microsharing (participant blog)
- #1 – Communities support the business strategy of the sponsoring organization (or they don’t get deployed).
- #2 Connections people make are a big part of the value. Problems solved. Innovative solutions delivered
- #3 experts and knowledge managers ferret out those success stories and share them across the enterprise
- Use as a ‘recruiting’ tool for either positions or projects.
- Collect and promote stories of those using and benefiting, including the value received.
- Measure reduction in time spent searching for info. Measure connectedness of corporation
- Incentive and recognition processes & programs, ‘how to’ tools..get the extroverts and introverts participating
- Invite WILLING participants from different silos/business units/locations/cultures & mold KM to meet their needs
- Provide a way for those who have been helped by others to send a thank you message; display ranked list of those thanked – I picture a simple ‘thanks’ link, just like ‘like this’ in facebook
- I’d love to know the answer to that one; in my 10+ years of doing KM I’ve never seen it consistently applied anywhere
- John Hovell, KM Senior Manager Lookheed Martin
- Rob Swanwick, Founder KMers.org
- Jeff Hester from Fluor in So Cal
- Theresa Sullivan, KM, Bain & Company
- Stan Garfield, community evangelist, Deloitte.
- Lee Romero from Deloitte in Detroit
- Luis Suarez from Gran Canaria, KMer, CommunityBuilder & Social Computing Evangelist @ IBM
- Ridgehead: Matt Haggerty, Ridgehead Software in Chicago
- elmi: Elmi Bester from Pretoria, SA