In the know

摘要

In big groups and companies, it's hard to track who knows what. So how can scientists share information and prevent work being duplicated? Philip Ball investigates one solution: knowledge-management software. It's a common frustration in scientific life: you have a seemingly simple query, but you aren't sure who can answer it. A basic experimental procedure, for example, might already have been mastered by someone else in the same building or company. Talking to that person could save you weeks of work ― but how do you find them? Researchers in small and specialized groups can simply ask around. But what about those in pharmaceutical companies that employ thousands of people around the world? Or scientists in multicentre collaborations? Asking individual colleagues would be far too time-consuming, and a single bulk e-mail would annoy many recipients.