In this day and age, the human aspect of technology is always appreciated, especially when everything else seems to be so automated and machinelike. Sites such as Digg are well received because they have a human touch to them, where actual readers rate articles and thus results aren't just based on keyword searches. Similarly, websites such as Yahoo Answers are very successful because you get real answers from real people who usually speak from experience, rather than a calculated answer based on page rankings that show up in a Google search.

Knowledge sharing is even more important within an organization. It facilitates and encourages creation, learning, discussion, and the spread of information to reach common organizational goals. Although the concept has existed for decades, the means of going about it were often not so easy. Today with the internet it is extremely easy to share information with one another. But a centralized database with answers is what many new products are able to achieve. Anova (Knowledge Sharing Software) for example, takes Yahoo Answers to the next step, with its ability to incorporate audio and video based answers as well as text responses.

This feature of incorporating audio/video answers is easier for many, as sometimes it's hard to put down on paper, what you might be able to say or better yet show on a video. Within a company or organization, these features allow individuals to share information with each other and store them in a centralized database that can be more easily accessed. The concept of FAQs (frequently asked questions) has just expanded into a whole new world of virtually any asked question. If you have the question, chances are someone out there has the same question and might have asked it already. And chances are also likely that someone has the answer, or something near an acceptable answer.

Especially with regards to the organization itself, it is important to keep knowledge internal, thus software such as Anova can be kept on an internal network accessible only to employees, and topics could be kept limited to those pertinent to work related queries. I personally enjoy the audio/video feature as it gives even more credibility to the system as a whole, since you can actually see the person giving you the answer, or better yet demonstrating it visually.