More 2003 IA Summit - Trip Reports
Stacy Surla shares her thoughts on the IA Summit. Comment to ssurla@aspensys.com.

Knowledge Compass: Opening Windows, Punching Holes in Stovepipes, Forming Communities, Connecting People to People
Jane K. Starnes, Intel Library

This session presented a case study of Intel's implementation of a internal knowledge management system called Knowledge Compass. The purpose of this ongoing project is to share expertise across the organization. It is organized around an "Ask the Expert" model. Individual workers volunteer to become "experts" or "resource specialists" and then populate knowledge areas and answer the questions of other staff. The system includes capturing questions and answers, and identifying and surfacing best practices.

Implementation and Proliferation

Since the Intel initiative is internal and voluntary, a structure was put into place to proliferate adoption and participation throughout the organization. Steps included having strong corporate buy-in, recruiting leaders, and encouraging volunteer experts through feedback and kudos. Roles include a Taxonomist, which is a staff position, and Category Moderators and Category Experts, who are volunteers.

Users can post a question either to a category, in which case the question is routed to a category expert, or to a specific expert. Interestingly, experts who have provided a picture of themselves tend to get more traffic. People like to see who they're talking to.

Answers are provided within 48 hours. Users can rate the answers, and this provides both positive feedback and policing for the experts. People who get consistently bad ratings tend to withdraw. People who get consistently great ratings can have their answers elevated to Best Practices (KBM or Known Best Methods in Intel lingo).

Interesting factoid. At Intel there are two kinds of staff. Carpet Dwellers are people who work out of cubicles and have their own individual computers. Fab Workers are the folks in the bunny suits who make chips, who share computers in a bullpen. The Knowledge Compass had to be designed to be useful to both kinds of workers.

Outside the Intranet

The lessons learned at Intel could also, I believe, be used to implement an Ask the Expert project for a client. In this case, the "proliferation" structures would be replaced by procedures, workflows, and other project management structures.

Jane Starnes' PowerPoint presentation on this topic is very informative and contains a wealth of specifics regarding how Intel has implemented the Knowledge Compass.