If Mitchell clicks on a smiley-face icon, KSE will add keywords from the article to his user profile. If the article doesn't interest him, he clicks on a sad-face icon, which instructs KSE to disregard the article. Mitchell can e-mail the article to his colleagues, along with annotations, and the article will automatically be added to the team's database. It's a great time-saver because you can shift that portion of your work to the software. It allows us to reduce unnecessary data and gives us only actionable information.
Many users are loath to make personal information public, even if it's job-related.
KnowledgeMail and KSE let them determine exactly what will be publicly accessible to others in the organization, but the issue of control lingers. To help users feel at ease with the new technology, KnowledgeMail can be integrated with existing software, such as Microsoft Outlook. TeamSpace, for example, currently in beta at the company, is a Microsoft Outlook-based collaborative work environment that is the virtual version of a team strategy room. Project participants meet in Texaco's team rooms to view and discuss pertinent project-related documents and other material. KnowledgeMail runs in the Exchange environment because that's what most people are comfortable with.