Knowledge Management for National Security

Someone once said... (and I don't know who said it, but as a blogger who cares if I cite my sources): "When it is time for the wheel to be invented, the wheel is invented." Truer words were never spoken, had I spoken them myself, which I have and will hereby take credit for unless anyone wants to take credit for it (and please cite your source).

Now to the nutmeat: The Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age. Word up. You guys rock. In synch.... with the Federal Knowledge Management Initiative spearheaded by Neil Olonoff (don't know who he is? That's the way he likes it!) and the Federal KM Working Group of which I, humbly, am still hanging on as co-chair, after leaving Federal service for digs at Marymount University in Arlington (Ballston), Virginia.

Anyways. The Markle Task Force penned a pretty parchment for distribution around New Rome Post-Emperor-Bush-back-to-the-Republic-Obama Administration, a.k.a. Washington, D.C. The hired help who crafted the concepts have probably not received proper props for their creative handiwork, though I suspect those listed Members of the Steering Committee were in much appreciation of their fine tapestry of thought on the subject of managing knowledge and information. Their backing will go a long way in the promotion of more efficient and effective government, which should translate to lower taxes, but probably won't.

Nutmeat in a nutshell: people don't talk to one another in the cornucopia of departments, agencies, et al that is the Federal Government. Nor, it turns out, do their laptops, desktops, crack-berries, Spi-Pods or whatever new tinkertoy some forced-out-of-Hollywood-go-back-get-a-degree-in-computer-science CA whiz jockey is going to market next. It's a problem. Furthermore, anyone with a Ph.D. in moviewatching (e.g. Americans) know that when various entities are after the same bad guy they often stumble over each other, all in the name of protecting their turf instead of sharing know-how in a coordinated effort ("Don't give me that jurisdiction crap." - The Matrix). Witness the rise and fall of the Department of Homeland Security as the most obvious example. (Sidenote: the year of the formation of DHS, I predicted at a conference on KM and homeland security that DHS was doomed as long as they saw integration primarily as an information-sharing problem rather than an organizational cross-cultural communication problem and gave them two years before they had a major PR crisis on their hand. Prediction delivered.)

Another sidenote. When my mother asks me, "Son, what the heck is knowledge management??" I say to her: "Have you ever known an organization where the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing?" She: "Yes, that's pretty much any big company." Me: "So that's a knowledge management problem." She: "I guess in the Federal Government it must be an even bigger problem since they're spending taxpayer's pesos (mom currently lives in Mexico) and need to be careful about what they spend, right?" Me: "Must be!" Silence. She: "So what are you folks up in Washington doing about it?" Me: "Heck, mom, I'm just a business professor now. I don't know anything. She: (sidebar, in a whisper, to reader: "actually, he knows everything, but likes to play stupid. tee hee!" Me: "Thanks for your input, mom. We'll leverage your intellectual capital at the next roundtable discussion where such optics will need to be prosecuted in a timely manner, according to relevant specifications, regulations, and reverberations." End of sidenote.

Five words (or short phrases) to remember and share with whomever you know in any branch of Government: We need KNOWLEDGE SHARING, TRANSPARANCY, SECURITY/PRIVACY, INCENTIVES & MEASURES, AND COMMUNITIES.

Hmmm... a useful nmeumonic?

K..S..T..S..PR..I...M..A..C.

Let's make it five words, okay?

Sharing, Transparency, Security, Incentives, and Communities.

STSIC

Well, you can come up with your own. I'm out of coffee.

Until next week.... when my position will be turned over to dun-da-da!
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ah, but no. You'll have to wait until next time. Sometimes this happens. Don't let it affect your self-esteem.