Messaging News - August 2008 - (Page 16) here are three stages in the sharing of expertise information through collaboration software: declared expertise, deduced expertise and discerned expertise. I believe it is time for organizations to demand vendors to deliver the higher stages. Let’s review each in turn. Declared Expertise In the first and most elementary stage, expertise is declared. An individual is asked to state what she believes she is an expert in. This is done via an electronic form— and is often part of her profile in T the system—of the business areas in which she has built up expertise. The idea is sound because if others can discover where your expertise lies, they can ask you to be involved or to contribute your expertise within related business projects. There are, however, at least three major problems that lead to the perpetual failure of declared-expertise systems. First, people hold inaccurate views on where their expertise lies. Second, individuals can’t describe their expertise in a way that other people need it described, when they are searching for it. Third, people do not keep their expertise lists upto-date. Ultimately, the system has inaccurate, unfindable and out-ofdate information. It is no wonder these systems have failed. What’s the latest example of a declared expertise system? The My Profile portion of Microsoft SharePoint My Site. Deduced Expertise A better way is needed of expressing expertise in a social group, and the deduction of expertise by software is that better way. The software-based deduction of expertise requires a system IDENTIFYING THE GENUINE EXPERT The Three Stages of Expertise Surfacing By: Michael Sampson 16 MESSAGING NEWS AUGUST 2008
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.