Asynchronous social search as a single point of access to information

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present asynchronous social search as a novel and intuitive approach to search for information in which people collaborate to find the information they are looking for. Design/methodology/approach A prototype was built to test the feasibility in a business environment. A case study was performed at an organisation with over 1,000 employees to evaluate the quality of asynchronous social search as a single point of access to information. Findings Based on the results, the authors conclude that asynchronous social search has great potential as a single point of access to organisational information. Key strengths include that the implementation requires no integration with the existing information technology infrastructure of organisations and participants were very satisfied with the results provided by the prototype. Originality/value This work demonstrates that asynchronous social search indeed provides a very good starting point for a single point of access to information, as integration with existing software systems is not necessary, and due to the lightweightness of the approach it also performs really well which, in turn, stimulates the technology’s acceptance by its end-users.