Discovering Distributed Expertise

This article provides an overview of expert finding systems which assist in the discovery of distributed expertise. We summarize requirements for expert finders, the current state of the art, and our corporately deployed expert finding system and its performance. We describe research directions in distributed expertise discovery and visualization. Introduction In a global economy, expertise is increasingly likely to be created and operate in a highly distributed fashion (Friedman, 2005). While clusters of competence will emerge (Porter 1998), the ability to find and foster global communities of interest and put diverse skills together for competitive advantage will be a critical success factor in a global market. Automating this competence discovery process will be come a key requirement. Expert Finding Systems (EFS), also called Expertise Location Systems (ELS) enable users to rapidly, accurately, inexpensively and securely/privately discover experts, expert networks, and the knowledge they contain. EFS need to support a number of key requirements including the ability to: Identify experts via self-nomination and/or automated analysis of expert communications, publications, and activities. Classify the type and level of expertise of individuals and communities. Validate the breadth and depth of expertise of an individual Recommend experts including the ability to rank order experts on multiple dimensions including skills, experience, certification and reputation.