System and method for managing and identifying subject matter experts

An information handling system comprising:

• a processing unit, wherein the at least one processing unit is operable to implement a method comprising:
• collecting communications from a plurality of sources;
• selecting a set of topics and a set of users;
• for each user, identifying, from the collected communications, conversations in which the user has participated;
• for each said topic, for each said user:
• measuring a proportion of the identified conversations that contain content suggestive of the topic, the measuring yielding at least one topical metric;
• analyzing timing of the identified conversations, the analyzing yielding at least one timing metric;
• examining relationships among data attributes of the identified conversations, the examining yielding at least one expertise-scope metric;
• generating multidimensional expertise data from the at least one topical metric, the at least one timing metric, and the at least one expertise-scope metric, wherein the multidimensional expertise data is representative of the user's expertise on the topic, wherein the multidimensional expertise data comprises a topical dimension, an expertise-scope dimension, and a timeline dimension;
• wherein the multidimensional expertise data comprises an expertise index for the user;
• and
• for each said topic, ranking the set of users by the expertise index;
• and
• providing a searchable interface, wherein the multidimensional expertise data is searchable by one or more topical parameters mapped to the topical dimension, by one or more scope parameters mapped to the expertise-scope dimension, and by one or more timeline parameters mapped to the timeline dimension.

A computer-program product comprising a non-transitory computer-usable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method comprising:

• collecting communications from a plurality of sources;
• selecting a set of topics and a set of users;
• for each user, identifying, from the collected communications, conversations in which the user has participated;
• for each said topic, for each said user:
• measuring a proportion of the identified conversations that contain content suggestive of the topic, the measuring yielding at least one topical metric;
• analyzing timing of the identified conversations, the analyzing yielding at least one timing metric;
• examining relationships among data attributes of the identified conversations, the examining yielding at least one expertise-scope metric;
• generating multidimensional expertise data from the at least one topical metric, the at least one timing metric, and the at least one expertise-scope metric, wherein the multidimensional expertise data is representative of the user's expertise on the topic, wherein the multidimensional expertise data comprises a topical dimension, an expertise-scope dimension, and a timeline dimension;
• wherein the multidimensional expertise data comprises an expertise index for the user;
• and
• for each said topic, ranking the set of users by the expertise index;
• and
• providing a searchable interface, wherein the multidimensional expertise data is searchable by one or more topical parameters mapped to the topical dimension, by one or more scope parameters mapped to the expertise-scope dimension, and by one or more timeline parameters mapped to the timeline dimension.