Got a question? Ask your knowledgebase

Orbital Software has released new software that helps workers quickly find the right answers to their questions.

Users of Organik Knowledgeware Version 2.0 send a question to a central knowledgebase, a combination of expert profiles, corporate data, Web sites or newsgroups, and get back a list of answers, relevant resources or the names of "experts" who can answer the question, with the interaction recorded into the knowledgebase for reuse.

Knowledgware is similar to Abuzz's E-mail-based Beehive application, acknowledged Orbital marketing director Dave Gibb, except that Knowledgware users can use either E-mail or a Web browser, which can be customized to look and feel like a company's intranet.

David Bell, CKO at British engineering firm and Orbital user Clyde Blowers, says Knowledgware's value lies in its ability to link people together. "It doesn't create a static database of information because the knowledge grows organically," he said. "Organik KnowledgeWare is completely people-centric."

Gerry Murray, director of knowledge management at IDC, agreed: Knowledgeware "really allows expertise to be contributed and 'networked' throughout an organization so that everyone has access to it."

Available now at $100 per seat, Knowledgware runs on Windows NT 4.0, Sun OS 5.51 and Novell Netware 5 Servers, with a built-in Cloudscape SQL database and its own HTTP server. It also supports Oracle's 8.0 database and Apache, Netscape and IIS Web servers