Rhetorical Question

I don't know if its so much rhetorical as anguished; I really would like an answer, but I really don't expect one. But here goes:

Big company. Lots of people know lots of things. Every so often one of them knows something you would like to know, and they'd tell you if you asked.

How do you find them?

Many companies adopt the approach of 'oh, we'll have people self-identify themselves as experts', and then when you need one, hey presto'. Others say 'oh, we'll use programmatic methods -- scanning emails for keywords, establishing data repositories that can be keyword-indexed'. Still others establish company or division wide instant messaging systems and say 'see, you can use this to flash-message everyone who MIGHT know and someone will pop up and answer.'

All of these do work, but not without effort. And planning. And insight. You have to have a tight community with a strong desire to help others (and a willingness to be helped in return); plus, you have to have a limited number of questions, or a way of filtering them so that you only get the questions you can and would answer. It would help if there was a method of tracking and indexing the questions that were asked, so that only the new ones actually got out to the audience, or the ones that were sufficiently different. Librarians - experienced librarians - to perform this function would be ever so much better than trying to do it programatically. And it would be good if you got brownie points for answering questions, suitable for trading in some currency of your choice, just to encourage use.

All of this is Quite Difficult. All have been done, in bits and pieces. Some are abysmal failures, delightful only to their creators. Some work -- occasionally. Few are scaleable. None are what you really want, which is to ask the HAL9000, and have it just tell you. For that, you need people. Smart, willing, knowledgeable, communicative people. Friendly would help, too.

So -- how do you find them?

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Afterthought:
Part of the reason that I like thinking about things like that is because they're intellectually interesting, unlike what I do from day to day. I'd gladly give up half my pay, just for that opportunity. Twice in my working life I had the opportunity to work with someone who was creative, not bureaucratic; who just wanted to solve problems in an inventive manner. Man, do I miss that. The creative impulse is a wonderful thing.