XPERTFINDER - Expert Finding within Specified Subject Areas through Analysis of E-Mail Communication

Today, a firm's employees embody a significant source of knowledge, not only by documenting knowledge, but also by assisting other colleagues with problem solving. Due to decentralising or business networking aiming at cooperation among companies, the lucidity within an enterprise as to which employees are experts in which field diminishes. The search for experts to assist the exchange of knowledge among employees constitutes the subject of research in the field of computer-supported collaborative work. The purpose of IT-systems for expert search is to endow employees with easy access to experts in certain subject areas. This paper depicts such a system that analyses E-Mail communication data of logged-in users for the preparation of expert profiles. A step preceding the analysis verifies especially if the sender has indeed conceived the entire E-Mail himself, or whether, for instance, sequences of previous E-Mails are contained. Measures for the protection of personal data as well as future fields of research are addressed.