Tacit Software
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Founder | David Gilmour |
| Headquarters | Palo Alto, California , United States |
| Products | KnowledgeMail, ActiveNet, illumio |
| Parent | Oracle Corporation (from 2008) |
Tacit Software was an enterprise and consumer-focused firm specializing in software designed for expertise and knowledge discovery. Established in 1997 by David Gilmour, who also founded Giga Information Group, the company was based in Palo Alto, California. Its financial backing came from a variety of investors such as Draper Fisher Jurvetson—with Steve Jurvetson serving on the board—Woodside Fund, Alta Partners, Royal Bank of Canada, and In-Q-Tel. In November 2008, Oracle Corp acquired Tacit, subsequently incorporating its technologies into the Oracle Beehive collaboration suite.
Company history
The initial offering from Tacit, KnowledgeMail, debuted in late 1999 as an expertise locator tool that automatically scanned emails and documents to generate profiles reflecting users’ interests and areas of knowledge.
By 2003, Tacit had developed ActiveNet, a web-based iteration of KnowledgeMail. This product underwent pilot testing at prominent firms including GlaxoSmithKline, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin. Notably, Lockheed Martin chose Tacit’s solution over five competing options and implemented it within its Space Systems Division. Ron Remy, Deputy CIO for Space Systems, highlighted a pilot success where the platform facilitated a connection between two employees who collaboratively resolved a significant technical challenge related to beryllium welding.
In 2006, Tacit expanded its expertise location capabilities to general Internet users through the launch of illumio.
Oracle acquired Tacit in 2008 for approximately $10 million and phased out the product by 2010.
Intellectual property
Tacit owned 13 patents encompassing:
- Techniques for building user profiles containing both public and private elements
- Assigning confidence metrics to topics associated with users
- Methods enabling access to user profile data