Calculating expertise confidence based on content and social proximity

A method, comprising:

• executing, via a processor, a document-oriented search based on a query in an index of documents to generate a set of document results, each document in the set of document results is associated with at least one potential expert;
• analyzing, via the processor, the document results to produce a list of potential experts;
• calculating, via the processor, an expertise score for each potential expert based on a calculated content score and metadata score for each potential expert;
• calculating, via the processor, an evidence diversity score for each potential expert;
• calculating, via the processor, a confidence score for each potential expert based on a diversity-constrained content score and a diversity-constrained metadata score for each potential expert, wherein:
• the diversity-constrained content score is calculated using the evidence diversity score, comprising a predetermined threshold number of different activities associated with the potential expert, and the content score for the potential expert;
• the diversity-constrained metadata score is calculated using the evidence diversity score and the metadata score for the potential expert;
• the content score is calculated based on a number of different content document types and associations associated with the potential expert, the content document types and associations are gathered by parsing websites and stored in a data repository;
• the metadata score is calculated based on profile-related information associated with the potential expert;
• and
• the confidence score is further calculated based on a social score, wherein the processor is configured to generate a representation of connections between the potential experts, the social score for each potential expert is calculated using the representation of connections and based on a number of connections to other potential experts;
• and
• sending a list of potential experts whose confidence scores are above a confidence score threshold to a client device.