Customer Service
3 February 2009
Social Search Key to Air Force Knowledge Now’s New Enterprise Search Strategy
Vivisimo’s Social Search Improves Information Access for Frontline Troops
Pittsburgh, PA — Using aspects of Web 2.0, a large information system for the U.S. Air Force called “Knowledge Now” is launching a new search strategy using Vivisimo’s Velocity Search Platform™ (vivisimo.com).
The strategy incorporates Velocity’s social search features, which empower users to tag, rate and comment on search results. Their tags, votes and comments are immediately added to the search index, improving results for the next user. Deployment is underway.
The Air Force Knowledge Now (AFKN) site has a simple mission, according to Randy Adkins, director of the Air Force Center of Excellence for Knowledge Management. “We help Airmen share expertise.”
Organized into thousands of “Communities of Practice”, Airmen share their expertise in postings that range from F-16 tactics to procurement regulations. AFKN was launched in 2002 and now rivals the largest corporate intranets. Open to anyone with a .mil email address, AFKN has nearly 300,000 registered users who view 10 million pages per month. AFKN supports about 170,000 searches a month, but Adkins expects that to double with implementation of the new features.
“We want the tags and ratings to make the system smarter as a result of hundreds of thousands of people interacting,” says Adkins. “The secret to success is it has to be easy for folks to use, or they won’t use it.”
AFKN aims to provide quick, easy access to millions of pages of content. Social search adds two elements that improve relevancy of results. First, keyword tags, ratings and comments add new navigation aids to AFKN users, speeding access to results they need. Second, social search tools make it easy for users to contribute their insights and experience to AFKN. When these insights become part of the search index, search relevancy is improved for the next user.
“Leveraging intellectual capital and information is a challenge,” says Adkins. “We use community to capture expertise and distribute best practices much more readily than with point-to-point email or phone conversations. Knowledge is the critical component in our governance model.”
As in corporate environments, Adkins addresses ROI. His checklist includes:
- Man-hours / year saved
- Faster search results
- Improved relevancy
- Leveraging un- or under-used metadata: “This improves search results and relevancy,” Adkins says
“In an important innovation, Vivisimo was the first enterprise search company to offer social search. Now we’re seeing it incorporated by organizations with a strong vision for extracting value from their business data,” said Raul Valdes-Perez, CEO of Vivisimo. “For the Air Force, social search is a critical function that commands the highest executive review, and its implementation can offer a powerful lesson for private industry.”
About Vivisimo, Inc.
Vivisimo provides enterprises with innovative search solutions that allow end-users to find and take advantage of all appropriate and available information, regardless of source, location or type. Vivisimo’s innovative technology, including social search tools that enable collaboration throughout the enterprise, is delivered with a focus on end-user satisfaction and on application control through easy-to-use interfaces, flexible security management and a modern architecture that enables quick deployment. Vivisimo products are available for standalone search applications or as OEM versions embedded as critical search technology within partner applications and solutions. Vivisimo serves its global clients from headquarters in Pittsburgh, USA, and partners throughout the world. Visit Vivisimo.com and our [Search Done Right™] blog.
