How can a large organization address the challenge of locating specialized knowledge that exists somewhere within its boundaries?

Internal knowledge markets – forums within organizations that match knowledge seekers with knowledge sources and that include material or social incentives to encourage information sharing — are one approach to that problem. Such knowledge markets can facilitate peer-to-peer assistance and and help bring to the surface hidden ideas, solutions and expertise your company needs to address business issues.

In “How to Find Answers Within Your Company,” an article in the new Winter 2011 issue of MIT Sloan Management Review, researchers Hind Benbya  and Marshall Van Alstyne describe a three-phase approach to designing and implementing an effective internal knowledge market.

If, after reading the MIT SMR article, you have questions about how to make internal knowledge markets work or comments about your own experience, send us an e-mail. We’ll share readers’ questions with the authors, Benbya and Van Alstyne, and publish their answers to selected questions on this website in February.

Posted in: Blog, crowdsourcing, knowledge management, managing information technology