Using Collective Intelligence

According to a recent survey, knowledge professionals are spending 55% of

their productive time searching for the right information. A startup company in

Bangalore, i-nable Solutions, wants to change this. The company wants to bring

about a change in the way organizations look at information gathering and how it

can be turned into a competitive advantage. It is utilizing collective

intelligence and semantic technology through the use of Web 2.0 tools to allow

organizations to build their own knowledge networks.

The Idea



Talking about the concept and its relevance to enterprises and individuals,

Sumeet Anand, founder and CEO, i-nable Solutions says, With Kreeo, companies,

individuals and institutions can build their own networks of knowledge and

continue to upgrade them as they move across levels. It can help new-age

professionals to organize and improve their knowledge. He also strongly feels

that companies that are banking on archaic models of knowledge management and

corporate training are not going to get the requisite competitive advantage.

Incidentally, Anand was involved in designing a knowledge management portal way

back in 2003 when he was working with Satyam. The portal went on to win the IBM

Beacon Award for the best KM and knowledge portal. The fulcrum of Kreeo is BOK

(body of knowledge). This will include two types of knowledge poolexisting and

dynamic knowledgewhich will get updated with the addition of new content.

Business Model



Kreeo offers to target two audiencesconsumers and enterprises. For consumers
there is Kreeo Open Web, where users are supposed to register on the website

kreeo.com, and participate in the collaborative knowledge creation and sharing.

There are fourteen types of content that users can create. Each content type

represents an important dimension of common or experiential knowledge that is

used to seek or share knowledge about a concept at a micro level. Any content

which is posted can be associated with a specific type of information related to

the concept. This could be an original contribution or a link to a web page

(bookmark).

The enterprise platform enables informal sharing and collaboration in

knowledge ecosystems, which besides saving time and cost, increases

participation by building visibility, recognition, and hence leveraging internal

as well as external knowledge. Kreeo platform is designed to integrate with

existing Internet/Intranet Systems and works within the companys firewall and

allows configuration of the security by selecting objects to be posted locally

and to the open portal. There is also a built-in functionality which allows

interoperability with Kreeo Open Web. Any organization can build its own

taxonomy and concept BOKa framework which helps organize each single item of

interest people wish to know about as a concept and build the entire spectrum

of gyan around that concept. BOK helps users in collectively organizing

information related to a concept as a comprehensive body of knowledge, covering

a wide variety of subject areas such as science, technology, business, people,

place, and organization. It can be any area of interest that is broad enough to

have a whole BOK around it.

For its Open Web platform the company targets online advertising, while for

enterprises it offers an off-the-shelf product. Talking about the business

model, SM Nafay Kumail, co-founder and head of business solution, i-nable

Solutions says, While we develop critical mass on Kreeo Open Web, we sell Kreeo

as an enterprise product with a host of services that customers can pick and

chose. We also offer customized Kreeo solution for unique business situations.

To ensure scalability and organizational requirements, we also offer

pay-per-drink kind of model where organizations can pick up certain features

depending on the need.

Apt Info



There is no dearth of free information on the web today. Search engines like

Google have tried their best to organize information that is available and

present the most important ones in order of importance. But the typical problem

a user faces is the relevance of information. Studies suggest that a user does

not go beyond a certain number of pages on a search result, giving an indication

of the users requirements. Users want relevant information on the first two or

three pages. But that is something all search engines, including Google, have

failed to deliver on. There are some initiatives wherein users are physically

organizing search results. In fact, Mahalo.com has tried to provide what it

calls human-powered search but is yet to achieve its intended objective. Anand

says, Web search engines offer only limited information and that too in an

unstructured manner. I strongly felt that if we could utilize the collective

intelligence of the users, we could create a common knowledge pool.

Launched as a portal Kreeo.com, in 2007, the company is trying to utilize the

current downturn by targeting companies that spend a huge amount of money on

training their workforce. According to some statistics, knowingly or

unknowingly, companies spend $5,000 per employee, per year without receiving

desired value. According to Anand, Most organizations have a courseware-driven

learning intervention and technologies that only create management reports

rather than generate value. He is confident that Kreeo innovation will change

all that.

The company is also trying to take into consideration the fact that knowledge

professionals spend most of their productive time searching for and waiting for

the right information, which is a great waste of human resources. This becomes

even more important due the fact that most of the workforce that is young and

socially, geographically and technically diverse and have moderate to huge

employee turnover.

Sudesh Prasad



sudeshp@cybermedia.co.in