Knode sounds like some fab tech. Imagine a Facebook with precognition. Knode’s bot crawls scientific publications, and generates “expertise profiles” for each scientist it encounters. Then it suggests who a scientist should know, rather than who they already do know. Still in beta, and currently confined to the Life Sciences.
Might be useful if it works but, as with all bot-based curation, the vital curatorial element of personal trust would be missing.