Microsoft search wants to pick your brain

Chairman Bill Gates is to show off server software that aims to help workers find data stored on their company’s computers as well as information located only inside the brains of their colleagues

Microsoft is hoping that social networking techniques will help win a few friends for its enterprise search technology.

On Wednesday, as part of a keynote speech to executives gathered in Redmond, Washington for Microsoft’s annual CEO Summit, chairman Bill Gates is expected to show off new server software that aims to help workers find data stored on their company’s computers as well as information located only inside the brains of their colleagues.

The next release of Microsoft’s SharePoint server software will have a feature called Knowledge Network that automatically builds profiles of employees and their areas of expertise.

That’s important because a ton of business data is stored in brains, rather than hard drives. Estimates are that anywhere from 50 percent to 80 percent of a company’s institutional knowledge is inside of its employees’ heads.

A lot of important knowledge is not written down in a document, said Jon Beighle, a general manager in Microsoft’s online services group.

Today, workers in large companies have a tough time figuring out who of their colleagues knows what. Microsoft’s technology tries to ease that task by looking through workers’ email and other data and then automatically generating working profiles.

Full article: ZDNet UK