Enterprise Architecture

Evidently the HR process (in IT the HR Department) doesn't seem to recognize their significant role in EA construction. Everything below is diffracted when it should be integrated.

High performing individuals should be used as a benchmark for their processes. This elevated involvement, status, and sense of belonging should bring concrete performance management and variable pay-platform results. Star performers should light the way for all processes. These processes should be part of an articulated corporate EA.

Non management / all employees could have their performance raised by process definition and horizontal participation. EA precepts would extend from the HQ, to the supply line and embrace customer service (CRM). Talent retention and a prized work environment could be EA induced by coordinating learning systems and content abstraction into these processes. Also include self directed work teams and enterprise communities.


Tower's Perrin Performance Management /EA Survey

Towers Perrin's 2003 survey of 1300 multi-national businesses proclaims a, dramatic shift as organizations look to balance people costs while gearing for growth. New (architecture) strategies are being implemented around the world; something we haven't seen before. (Top-Consultant.com)

The responding HR executives focus on three tactics:
I. Segment workforce by high performing individuals impacting business
II. Customize programs for these groups
III. More variable pay into reward mix

Respondents also see no quick fix for managing human capital. They say (82%) that performance management and variable pay have not had the anticipated success in delivering maximum value to the business.

60 % felt it was important for non-management to understand how performance effects business. 37% felt these employees had low level or no understanding; of enterprise vision and their role. Respondents wanted to educate them about performance management and implement effectively.

The respondents recognized that customer service drives success across the globe. 54% said that, Customer service is the key to success. 35% saw ;customer servidominantir dominstrategicre strategy.

Corporations recognized talent retention as the critical asset in success. PerrinÂ’s 1999 survey found they wanted to attract and retain talent. The 2003 Perrin survey cited, poor relationships with management and a lack of opportunity as tied for first place of why talent leaves.
Enterprise Architecture (EA) Vision

A clear enterprise architectural vision addresses both the shortfalls and strategies above. EA can be seen as tasks-skills-competencies-projects-processes-matrixed enterprise processes. SkillsNET Corporation, Waxahahachie Texas, has a strong EA vision. They have documented high performers and their corporate processes. SkillsNET has a compandium of over 175,000 jobs linked to skill, business and learning objects---keys to performance management and talent retention.

EA processes should extend to and include all employees. They are vital in creating an enterprise vision which enables, engages, and thus retains customers. When these processes are designed as EA and documented they become visible and tractable. This allows for performance to be measured and managed.

By its nature corporate EA vision creates a team paradigm. Processes can extend the nurturing human desire of belonging throughout the enterprise. This may produce a gold mine of corporate goodwill and cooperative performance. Customers recognize happy employees. CRM is the end game of EA.

EA allows exponential techno-change to be better assimilated. EA provides for the forming and contributions of communities-------a force and resource of near infinite promise and value.

Two months after receiving this letter and after a conversation with me, Art Johnson, Ex VP Strategic Development Lockheed, announced a deal with Seibel Systems to team on Homeland Security------whcih is what previous docs suggested. Later AT&T and IBM followed suit-----validates blogger EA vision.

Dr. Vance Coffman, September 5, 2002 RC Holmes,
President and CEO President
Lockheed Martin KnowNet Consultancy
6801 Rockledge Drive 21 Lomond Court
Bethesda, Maryland 20817 Baltimore, MD 21237


Dear Dr. Coffman:

Your Lockheed leadership exceeds laudatory. As leader of the nation’s most capable corporation and Chair of the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, we deem your visionary guidance to be critical to the historic ramifications of Homeland Security architecture.

Lockheed Martin has always been an exemplary corporate citizen. As “the” foremost entity in the National Capitol Region, kindly consider a preeminent role in our mission.
Our Mid-Atlantic SMART Congressional Caucus tenders for your reflection what the DOD referenced as the, “Nation’s Foremost Comprehensive Plan for Homeland Security”. (1*)

In terms of economic development for the 21st century, global Knowledge Environment, this opportunity is without historical precedent. In terms of safeguarding Americans, a “People Defined Architecture” is absolute in necessity.

Lockheed could serve as history’s mentor. Your facilitation of appropriate discussion would be warmly welcome. Thanking you in advance, I remain

Respectfully yours,

RC Holmes

CC: Albright, P.
Beers, R.
Courain, D.
Eberhart, R. Gen
Gooden, L.
Johnson, A..
Lubniewski, S.
McCaffrey, B. Gen Ret
Oles, T.
SMART Caucus

Enclosures: “National Capitol Region Reference Model”
“Homeland Security Business Case: People Defined Architecture” (1*)

As CoChair of the Emergimg Technologies Group, this letter attempts to help the new Director. Currently the IAC is working on Common View Processes betwixt indutry and eGov.



Ms. Joiwind Ronen, RC Holmes
Executive Director President
FGIPC and IAC KnowNet Consultancy, In’l.
11350 Random Hills Road 21 Lomond Court
Suite 120 Baltimore, MD 21237
Fairfax, Virginia, 22030 July 8, 2003

Dear Ms. Ronen:

Congratulations on your new position as Executive Director of FGIPC and IAC. Hopefully you will find this letter both supportive and helpful.

The IAC Emerging Technologies Sub-committee is a gateway betwixt the FEA, Homeland Security, the DoD, state-local government and the entire private sector. FEA matriculation is critical to safeguarding the homeland and to 21st century economic development. I volunteered as ET CoChair to help build a national enterprise vision.

AT&T VP, Robert Allenby, synopsized the IAC challenge on WHUT yesterday evening, “Those societies which understand and institutionalize knowledge economy paradigms will be the economic victors of the early 21st century.” Let me share how I see IAC progressing in this regard.

Enterprise architecture has three core elements: behaviors, systems and processes. IAC’s ET SubC is focused on XML as an FEA “roadmap”. While XML has great promise for mandated process interoperability, it is a subset of IT, which is a subset of systems, which are a subset of EA.

We are a nation at war. Homeland Security, Homeland Defense and DoD’s Transformation necessitate the development of myriad real time processes. Attached is a strategic framework (draft) addressing this national priority as well as XML.

You have inherited 24 eGov initiatives, which may suffer the same failure rate of 68% as did early corporate CRM initiatives. Corporations failed to recognize that the customer is an interactive extension of the integration of all enterprise processes. Like eGov, they selected isolated, projects of low risk. They withered, unattached due to a lack of executive commitment, champions, and knowledge process integration (supply chain, ERP, BI, data>tasks>skills>projects>processes and communities etc.).

At the components meeting, it was stated that the 6 business processes in the 2003 Work plan were arbitrarily selected in an attempt to bring continuity to the 24 eGov’s. These processes have a disparate relationship to an integrated FEA. They are alike only in their dissimilitude.

Another EA roadmap detour was lanterned at Susan Turnbull’s eMed Conference. First responders do not speak the same language town to town. BioSurveillance’s HLS/7 language has agreement issues. XML has problems per IAC white paper, “Semantics, Semantics.” The attached outline suggests that experts can agree on skill-centric language. Skills / behaviors are fundamental to all processes. They also occasion organizational championing along with individual, community and executive buy-in.

Developing IT infrastructure (Tech Reference Model and Data RM) as the focal course of action is a natural remnant from the dying Information Age. The Bush Administration’s recent inclusion of “Chief Human Capital Officer at the CFO and CIO table” (FCW, 5/26) speaks to the vision herein.

Finally, we are led to Steve Cooper’s call for EA subscribers (everyone) to, “think national enterprise vision.” Secretary Rumsfeld and the DoD extol Transformation in terms of Knowledge Environment EA (attached). Skill distribution, training and real time processes will be immediate first line of defense should another event occur (likely).

I broached a focus on HHS (CIO Melissa Chapman champions eGov) as a national EA touchpoint. CDC’s XML commitment, along with eMed and skills / behavior, could induce strong private sector participation catalyzed by Homeland Defense and simultaneous knowledge economy evolvement.

Let me say that you inherit some extraordinary talent: Brand Niemann, Owen Ambur and Betty Harvey (XML); Susan Turnbull as a magical organizer; and, the dedication of PV, John Dodd, Earl Pederson, Dan Twomey and others.

The question for IAC is, “What and how are you going to sell to the private sector?” The question for the government is, “How and when are you going to matriculate THE CRITICAL EA pillars of behavior and processes? How will you get people to think team-community-process-collaboration?”

Mr. Lorentz is quoted as saying, “you must know your customer (the Government) Kindly accept my resignation as I believe myself to be out of phase with IAC’s current customer requirements.

As a resource in the future, I remain

Purposefully yours,

RC Holmes

CC: IAC Members
Meyerriecks, D.
Niemann, B.

Human skills are the common kernel throughout enterprise architecture design. Design progression may be thought of as skills-competencies-processes-matixed processes. Skills enable and focus competencies such as education, experience, talent, and enterprise vision. They are essential to core job performance and process delineation. Skills are usually the bonding element in communities.

As the Info Age silo departments become processes, than HR should assume a central role in EA matriculation. As of yet, this realization has not dawned. Nor is a clear vision of EA interworking being promulgated; except at the DoD----world's R&D leader......rc

Homeland Security Business Case

“People Defined Architecture”
RC Holmes (C) 6/02
Homeland Security bespeaks historic complexity. Thousands of institutions and millions of people must interwork. A myriad of work teams must learn to manage matrixed processes, build collaborative communities, organize infinite knowledge choices; all while delivering real time services against varying tides of organizational cultures.

A “People Defined Architecture” can optimally organize enterprise efficiencies. In affiliation with DOD, NSA, Labor, Brookings, Hopkins, AEA, Fortune 100, etc., we have developed an authoritative KM architecture (1*) as a blueprint for Homeland Security implementation and 21st century economic development.

Knowledge management’s is the core architecture for collaboration. Information Technology is KM’s support infrastructure. “IBM and Microsoft have made KM their core business strategy.” (KM, 5/01) Administration leaders implicitly endorse KM. Mark Forman states, “We need knowledge solutions and supply chain management....a state, local, federal, private sector partnership.” (GCN, 4/02) Attorney General Ashcroft seeks, “human collaboration between all levels of government.” (Wash Tech, 10/01)

People processes and communities are the only strategy which can deliver: 1) timely team and institutional collaboration, 2) effective performance management, 3) crucial skill and competency deployment and, 4) cost effective coordination of shared processes for first responders and catastrophic events: health services, warnings, hospitals, intelligence, citizens, schools, agencies, business, etc.

A visionary KM architecture induces other benefits. It provides a roadmap for security and IT integration. It is synonymous with eGovernment. It can boilerplate business and education infrastructure for global, economic competitive advantage. A PDA design can catalyze performance, productivity, customer satisfaction and ROI for the 21st century.

Proven PDA / KM benchmarks exist for Homeland Security implementation. Knowledge processes via WEB services and CRM flagship PDA ubiquity. Proven interactive, customer / user focused process strategies have been implemented by IBM, PeopleSoft, Tear Fund, Marriott, SAP, GE, governments and most Fortune companies.

The self-directed work team is the essence of the future of America. Only agile teams can filter unlimited knowledge; absorb exponential IT; develop and wield critical skills and competencies; network with other teams; and, continually hone these capabilities, and manage time-critical, collaborative, enterprise processes. The Homeland Security Department could cement national readiness, cultivate private sector support; and, ensure cost effectiveness by tapping into the team spirit innate to American culture.

RC Holmes 6/02 (C) rcholmes@hotmail.com (1*) “National KM Reference Model”

As suggested below Seibel has teamed with Lockheed, AT&T, and IBM for Homeland S. However instead of building a KE architecture VISION FOR THE FUTURE, we are squandering money in an almost comical (not unexpected) disarray of funding boondoggles (borders, airports, first responder local needs, cyber-secure, health surveillance, etc. If there was an attack, without a roadmap and executive vision, we would not only have panic but the "political and economic misdirection" forecast by brooking's in this blog's preceding docs.


HOMELAND SECURITY: STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT

NATIONAL CAPITOL REGION MODEL

Summary: .
Homeland Security is an urgent, national priority of
historic complexity. This cutting-edge, strategic
model is from authoritative research by DOD, NSA,
LABOR, Brookings, Hopkins, AEA and Fortune 100.
We employ a knowledge management architecture
a multiplicity of catastrophic threats, participating
entities, and accelerating technology opportunities.
Enterprise implementations by IBM, Allied Signal,
Future economic development is supported.

Challenges: Institutional, Human, Logistical
Collaboration with hundreds of diverse institutions
Multiple catastrophic threats and targets
Skill / competency ID, development and delivery
Citizenry, business planning and preparedness
Multi-level security requirements
IT infrastructure alignment and evolvement
Equipment, et al. funding and procurement
Team as operative infrastructure module
Process reengineering and management
Acute time sensitivity

Approach:
Identify, create federal funding opportunities
Define federal support processes
Identify knowledge resources, communities
Categorize for each major threat and target
Coordinate-employ all enterprise architectures (DoD, DHS, FEA, NASCIO, private sector
Overlay CRM-COTS software and strategies
Map interconnection blueprint for all above
Architect KM workflow
Identify common-overlapping processes
IT needs analysis
Interject security issues and variables
Multi-channel delivery system (phone, WEB, fax, portal, call mgmt centers, etc.)
Correlate business disaster recovery

Benefits to the Region:
1) Protection of the National Capitol in time of war, 2) Superior regional infrastructure harmonization, 3) National Homeland Security model, 4) Regional and federal workforce development, 4) Local business participation, 5) Addresses all catastrophic threat issues simultaneously, 6) Facilitates introduction and use of advanced eSystems, communication systems and IT, 7) Incubates remedies for national priority of skill and competency shortages, 8) Builds infrastructure for global, knowledge economy, competitive advantage, 9) Synonymous with eGovernment and eBusiness, 10) maps security determinations

Provisional Team:
SMART CAUCUS members: Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Washington DC, Johns Hopkins, University of Maryland, Carnegie Mellon, UNISYS, SkillsNET, Siebel, Lockheed, EDS, Northrup, IBM, AT&T, Gnr’l Dynamics, Verizon, SRA, KnowNet, CSC, Bearing PT and Booz Allen.

Budget Request:
100m a year for three years

Team Leader: RC Holmes
President
KnowNet Consultancy, In’l
21 Lomond Court
Baltimore, Maryland 21237
voice 410 391 6393
email: rcholmes@hotmail.com
June, 2002 (C)

The Federal Enterprise Architecture mandate, and recent move to "common view processes"for eGov, validates the direction recommended below to Congress. The Bush admin has done well in moving to an FEA-KE-KM architecture. The gulf which remains between people interworking and simply trying to interconnect people is still an abyss as of today.

REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT: CRISIS IN HUMAN CAPITAL

United States Senate, 106th Congress
RC Holmes (C) Feb 01

The report by Senator George Voinoivch, Chairman Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, begins with earnest tenor, “The federal government is ill-prepared to manage its human capital in the 21st century.”

With due diligence and appropriate eloquence, the Honorable Senator and his colleagues have begun to grapple with the enormity and complexity of the New Economy (Knowledge Environment: virtualcollab). Their sense of urgency is laudable. “The federal government must develop and begin implementation of a plan in the near future.....Otherwise both United States commercial functions and national security
may be jeopardized.”

The Senate is on target when it assesses human capital direction. “Human capital is an asset whose value can be enhanced by investment. An organization’s human capital approach must support: 1) mission, 2) a vision for the future, 3) core values, 4) goals, and 5) strategies. Hierarchical management must move to partnering. Siloed organizations should become integrated to use people’s knowledge, skills and
abilities (competencies).”

The remainder of the 62 pages serves to assemble available answers to the pernicious human capital problem. The report searches through industry and state best practices, existing support legislation, and current federal initiatives for guidance.

The directional value of these efforts could be greatly enhanced by identifying from whence our human capital problem emanates. The environment visited by the report is rooted in a dying information age. This short lived era is being superseded by a stronger and diametrically different Knowledge Environment (virtualcollab).

The Brooking’s Task Force report, Unseen Wealth, illuminates the dark difficulty addressed by the Senate (BTFhumancapital). Brookings warns that, “our lack of definitions, vocabulary, measurements and reliable business models for the New Economy may result in a wrong direction for economic and policy decisions...which could result in a serious misallocation of society’s resources.”

We recommend a national architecture-framework for developing a breakthrough infrastructure for human capital matriculation. This infrastructure could embrace the Senate’s thoughts on individual learning accounts, employee banding, and the elevation of training to executive director status. It may also provide economic competitive advantage and solutions for education.

RC Holmes, KnowNet rcholmes@hotmail.com January, 2001

This is a national enterprise architecture strategy I gave to the IAC. They link the federal gov with the states and the private sector. In May 2003 they were not ready for this approach. Today they are moving toward inter-domain process evolvement.


An IAC ET Support Strategy for CIO Council’s AIC ET Subcommittee

Strategic FEA Framework: People-Skills-Processes

President Bush’s direction is clear, “We need to get the right workforce with the right skills to the right place at the right time.� (PM, Defense Acq U, Jan-Feb, 03) People and skills provide a highly visible, cost effective, and marketable framework for EA migration.

An historic Knowledge Environment is revolutionizing the enterprise. (KM Ref Model-attach) This KE has spawned four dominant architectures: DoD, Homeland Defense, Homeland Security and the FEA. Numerous other agency architectures are proliferating. People and their skills are the active components in architectural matriculation.

The private sector also faces the KE architectural ubiquity. Economic competitive advantage is increasingly based on real time knowledge transfer. Intangible assets have displaced capital assets as primary in business valuation. Human capital and their skills is the recognized enterprise engine.

State and local governments must adapt forthwith. Their major federal focus is Homeland Security and funding. A skills based, eLearning architecture, generating processes which are connected to identifiable funding, could anchor FEA acceptance. Currently the state-local environment is mired in political, parochial and financial flux.

Homeland Defense is a skills centric, national priority. Should a terrorist event or series of events occur, skill identification and distribution would be critical. Simultaneous staffing of the proposed seven national auxiliary domains (Transformation Act 2003), the National Guard, and the reserves (all simultaneously) requires a plan be in place.

Filling human holes left in state-local governments and the private sector would be a severe problem. Training is requisite as are thousands of processes involving millions of people. Tactical, strategic and operational skills-people-process architectural planning is not only a war mandate, it is common sense. Full FEA-government participation is critical.

1) People skills EA advantages
A. High visibility
B. Seeds thinking about the enterprise in architectural terms
C. Involves everyone
D. Business case exists for “cost effective� skills based PROCESS DESIGN
E. Performance benchmark
F. “The� competitive advantage
G. Supplies champions
H. ONLY PEOPLE can manage processes and process evolvement
I. Germinator for forming communities of interest and practice
J. Central to training and readiness

2) DoD endorses both the Knowledge Economy paradigms and skills-centric strategies
A. World’s foremost R&D leader
B. Secretary Rumsfeld, “Due to changing nature of concepts, people and
organizations, we must redefine our processes and culture.�
C. Under Sec Readiness, Dr. Paul Mayberry, “New strategic environment (KE)…
performance architecture, capability-skill based training…interagency, intergov.�
D. Major General, Dan Dick, US Joint Forces Command, “Transformation
architecture is holistic…right people, skills sets and training to defeat an
adaptive enemy.�
E. Vice Admiral Konetzni, “The resistance to change is phenomenal.�
F. Dr. David Alberts, Director Research and Strategic Planning, “Power to the edge
and self actualization are our future� (people-skills focus)
G. General Kevin Byrnes, Army Training, Doctrine, “The army is all about people.�
G. Deidre Lee, Director Defense procurement and Acquisition Policy, “Focus
leadership and resource on human capital strategic planning; align HR policies,
practices and authorities with leadership.� (strategy FEA can use herein)

3) Homeland Defense demands a skill architecture. The OMB endorsed “Transformation
Act 2003� (the KE oriented Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency has new
Visibility and leadership power)

4) Homeland Security
A. “Not on board with the FEA?� (OMB suggests otherwise)
B. IAC must develop and sell collaborative HLS and FEA strategies
C. HLS is the collaborative process implementation engine for foreseeable future
D. HLS provides urgency for processes, architecture championing

5) Federal Enterprise Architecture
A. Needs a major Departmental model to serve as a benchmark (HHS)
B. Process automation is secondary to people knowledge delivery
C. Process engineering should be inter-process, inter-domain
D. Strong XML support
E. Executive and championing inter-entity strategies
F. Inter-architecture strategies an absolute must, particularly HLS
G. Sell national architecture vision via understandable people-skills-process framework

6) eGov initiatives: Map to FEA and twixt four dominant architectures. Accentuate
OMB’s four areas of concentration: HLS, economic dev, social services, back office
A. Susan’s June 17th eMed conference on target HHS pilot architecture FEA-LOB
D. FEMA “Disaster Assistance and Crisis Response� - HLS, DoD, FEA LOB
E. HHS “Consolidated Health Information� – HLS, DoD, FEA LOB
F. Interior “Geospatial� – great implications for collaborative communities and inclusion to HLS, Homeland Defense multi-channel strategies, FEA LOB
G. OPM - 4 HR projects, HR is hidden soul of KE and national skills architecture
H. DOT – “Online Rulemaking� has promise
I. Treasury “SAFECOM� HLS, Homeland Defense indispensable

7) HHS architecture: a potential FEA goldmine
A. Melissa Chapman, CIO, “We would use the FEA to get it done.� (FCW, May 11)
B. Directly links all entities and agencies with critical processes
C. Provides dual gov and economic development processes
D. Health is where processes from the 4 major architectures conjoin
E. Where citizens and private industry can see ROI and NATIONAL INTEREST SERVICE BENEFITS VIA FEA PROCESSES

8) SkillsNET – a ready made (Steve Cooper) “National Architecture Pilot Project�
A. XML, web services compliant
B. Portals linking business, gov and education in 26 states (skill objects)
C. World’s largest compendium of skill definitions (170,000)
D. Navy-DoD advisory authority for workforce skills management and performance
E. Respected at DHS and national forums
9) mGen
A.eLearning management system skills demographic and distribution architecture
B. eLearning vendor for EDS’ NMCI (largest DoD contract) contract
C.XML compliant
10) IAC potential CIO Council, ET subcommittee support
A. Contact AFCEA, AEA, SBIR, etc.
B. Work with Lilly Engstrom HHS Director State and Local Preparedness
C. Capitol Region Architecture model (attached)
D. Skills architecture pilot
E. Performance Management project model
F. Excite IAC team
G. Media exposure – interview Mark and CIO Council—if this flies
11) Communities and skills-people framework
A. Skills are strong basis for community formation (XML)
B. Skills and competencies are operative glue for communities practice/interest
C. Exponential technology change requires skill-experience sharing to keep up
D. Very strong interagency, intergov, inter-domain engine potential
E. eGov Geo Spatial a breakthrough pilot?

RC Holmes ©
President
KnowNet Consultancy, In’l
IAC Cochair ET SubC
rcholmes@hotmail.com 5/12/03

The following KM Reference Model is likely the first significant differentiation between KM (Knowledge Environment) as the backbone of enterprise architecture enterprise and IT (Information Age) as a support infrastructure. Our leaders are now (almost 2004) moving toward this paradigm.

National Knowledge Management Reference Model

“Human Capital Architecture”

This model was forged in affiliation with leading knowledge management authorities:

The Brookings Institute Johns Hopkins University’s Policy Institute
Department of Defense National Institute Standards and Technology
National Science Foundation Department of Labor
National Defense University National Skills Standards Board
National Security Agency American Electronics Association
IT Fortune 100 SkillsNET Corporation

The “Knowledge Management Reference Model” is a framework for national, strategic, economic competitive advantage. It aligns the information age with the robust knowledge economy. This model prescribes a “People Defined Architecture” consisting of tasks-skills-competencies-projects-processes-matrixed processes. Information technology is the support infrastructure for enterprise optimization.

Converging knowledge economy dynamics include: 1) exponential technology change, 2) a paradigm shift from information to knowledge, 3) organizational virtualization, 3) knowledge process preeminence, and 4) intangible assets displacing capital assets. Executive management is faced with transitioning from a vertical to a horizontal architecture, developing human capital skills and competencies, and inspiring team collaboration. Bold new eSystems (LMS, CRM, etc.) must be rapidly absorbed . A continuum of IT advances (omnimedia, portals, WEB services, grid computing, XML, etc.) requires ongoing adaptation. Risk management and team-agility come to the fore.

The root cause is the migration from computers (Information age) to networks (Knowledge Environment). Just as civilization used to follow the rivers, it now follows technology. People and institutions are networked and empowered. The knowledge economy requires a new genre of competencies: teaming, resource management, systems, process development, and knowledge sharing skills. Real-time processes, supporting user and customer collaboration, become the enterprise focus. CEO communication of enterprise strategic vision and architecture will be crucial.

The Brookings Institute confronts us, “We lack measurements, management, business models and a consensus vocabulary for the New Economy.” ( “Unseen Wealth”, 11/00) The Senate warns of a “Human Capital Crisis: Report to The President” (10/00). Skills are the tractable elements common to KM architecture, IT infrastructure, and strategic enterprise design. Human Resources will become a key organizational organization.

Homeland Security represents a clean slate for government architectural leadership. Otherwise, “We face serious, potential, long term, strategic economic and infrastructure policy misdirection.” (Brookings, 11/00)
Knowledge Management Reference Model

KM Architecture

skills
competencies
tasks
projects
processes
matrixed processes
organizational communities
knowledge trend strategies

Versus IT Infrastructure (as EA)

WEB services, metadata-OO, XML
LMS, CLMS
DBMS
Most software
Telecom-datacom
Omnimedia
Potals
You are looking at a conundrum of profound complexity. Unprecedented and historic, strategic motifs are dependent upon accelerating human capital matriculation. This reference model can serve as a template for the design of both a national and an organizational-specific system for human capital, knowledge process development.

Knowledge worker matriculation requires architectural clarity. Every category above speaks to rapid employee adaptation amidst time critical mission implementations. Subject knowledge and sources will be ever expanding. All of these subjects are interrelated and interdependent. Quantum, knowledge trend breakthroughs are always imminent (mass collaboration, grid computing, process automation, etc.). Our KM Reference Model provides for timely skill-competency and knowledge-process management and delivery. A “People Defined Architecture” is the essence of an effective strategy for Homeland Security and global, economic competitive advantage.

The rules have changed. The threat of Knowledge Environmental volatility is substantiated by “The War on Terror”. Civilization’s world order was realigned in a single month. War mutated. KM fundamentals such as: process collaboration, knowledge (intelligence) cultivation, self directed work teams (cells), global communications, and organizational virtualization became the weapons of choice.

“Our world will never be the same.” The coming economic wars and Homeland Security require people readiness and response. Knowledge management’s “People Defined Architecture” is the only strategy which can provide time-critical services delivery, focused skills and competencies, ongoing knowledge process development, and collaborative enterprise management.


RC Holmes, December, 2001(C)
President, KnowNet rev. 8/02
21 Lomond Court voice: 410 391 6393
Baltimore, Maryland 21237 rcholmes@hotmail.com

Understanding Enterprise Architecture-----This work forecasts CRM as the "Knowledge Environment - EA juggernaut." Only yesterday, CRN mag quoted the Adelphi Group as saying that CRM will connect other corporate processes such as supply chain, accounting, etc. and CRM is making a comeback not related to sales------Of course CRM is the essence of KE economics.

Below a quote says that 60% of CRM initiatives fail. That's because there was no CEO -CIO architectural vision. The Federal EA mandate made the same error. The gov selected 24 eGov initiatives who were mostly irrelevant to everyday work. They focused on 6 business processes which presented no EA vision or coordination. They further focused on building a data refernce model as an architecture. This is a CIO-IT Info Age mindset for a KE. Fortunately they replaced the OMB (President's Management team) with new KE thinking. Their Industry Advisoey Council is now emphasizing inter-domain processes to support the President's "Customer Centric Management Plan for eGov." They still don't see skills as the process kernel and HR as a dominant player.

Human Tidal Wave

Executive Management Knowledge Economy Strategies

RC Holmes, Oct., 2001 (C)
rcholmes@hotmail.com

This document unveils the epicenter of the 21st century Knowledge Economy. It is a prognostic distillation of our nation’s most prestigious knowledge management efforts. We believe it to contain the most valid government and business model for building global competitive advantage.

Research affiliations include:

Department of Defense Johns Hopkins University American Electronics Assn.
National Security Agency Brookings Institute Commerce Department
Department of Labor National Defense University National Business Alliance
Fortune 100 National Science Foundation

Brookings Task Force, “Serious, long term, economic and policy misdirection is likely to
result due to the New Economy.”
US Senate Report to President, “We have a national crisis in human capital.”

These challenges presage historic, knowledge economy opportunities. Revolutionary business infrastructure will flow from three, turbulent tidal waves:

I. Exponential technology change
II. A polar, information to knowledge, paradigm shift
III. Institutional virtualization

Urgency for CEO / CIO / CKO leadership is heightened by the confluence of these events. Visionary, people-centric infrastructure is required to leverage knowledge strategies. Bill Gates amplifies, “Corporate risk and knowledge management may dictate economic success due to a six fold increase in the rate of change during this decade.”

Knowledge workers will essence 21st century, operational readiness. Knowledge is organic information. Changing the way workers think and interact is imperative. Professor Gary Becker, 1992 Nobel Laureate in Economics, assesses human capital valuation as, “investments far outweighing those in physical and financial capital.” Mike Miliken’s Knowledge Universe estimates, “US capital assets to be $43 trillion. Adding human capital grows this amount to a possible $180 trillion.”

Dominance of knowledge economics is ascending. It is heralded by shifting paradigms:
1) information to knowledge, 2) tangible to intangible assets, 3) IT to human networking, and 4) hierarchical business models to horizontal, matrixed, enterprise processes. These movements combine to make knowledge infrastructure key to business valuation. Executive ability to define, measure and manage the interworking and implementation of these trends is pivotal. Competitive advantage, market share, investment decisions, ROI, and survival are resultant minions of executive direction.

The customer relations management (CRM) juggernaut illustrates the need for KM readiness. Hundreds of millions of electronic customers are a clickstream away from instant service and meaningful interaction. The most affluent and sophisticated buyers will populate eCRM (85% USA BMW). They will come to expect personalized, collaborative support and access. According to editor Robert Silverman, “CRM has proven to have tremendous ROI generation. Companies are enjoying higher prices, faster growth rates, lower customer turnover, increased market share and higher margins.” However, experts are mystified by the 60% failure rate of first time, CRM implementations. (Intell. CRM, 5/01)

This dichotomy may be traced to tepid, KM infrastructure transitioning and focus. Customer success should be a design extension of effective, knowledge management workflow. Currently, 90% of major corporations have KM initiatives. However, a KM / IDC study tabulates that less than 20% of these are led by CEO commitment. Furthermore, 47% haven’t any KM staff and l % have five or less, full-time, KM staffers.

Government has similar leadership default. Agency and business missions should involve every employee as a knowledge worker. A clear vision of KM architecture and infrastructure is imperative. Government and business models should enable agile response to explosive, KM events like “Operation Enduring Freedom” and CRM. A continuum of robust technologies and technology trends must be accounted for and absorbed. The concurrent development of knowledge worker motifs as the focal, business and government “modus operandi” should cement the KM foundation.

In a knowledge proffering organization, every employee should be team responsive. In CRM the least empowered employee is usally the public ambassador. The chain of command often operates as a screen to customer access. Customers are thwarted by the 800 call abyss, endless voice messaging, information restricted employees, and flawed Internet access strategies. Fragmented infrastructure migration, without executive leadership, is poised for delay and repressed chaos. Government and business leadership can use knowledge infrastructures to integrate supply chains, expedite command structures, improve performance and become agile.

Knowledge Paradigm Shift: Human Capital Imperative

The three tidal waves of change are not negotiable. In the IT age, problems were comparatively straightforward. By 1999, exponential technology had made IT skill shortages the top CEO priority. Knowledge worker competencies are far more complicated. They are systemic for both people and technology. Measurement, training and management may evolve simultaneously with implementation. The IT skills shortage is worsening with one qualified applicant for three IT jobs (US CIO Council 7/01). It will by compounded by a dirth of knowledge worker matriculation mechanisms.

According to the GAO, “Government is worse off than the private sector as a half of the Government workforce will be eligible for retirement during the next 5 years.” (eWashingtontechnology, 11/01) The State Department’s OPICS project for global collaboration promises to capture retiring employee knowledge, establish new insights and standards for knowledge economy assimilation, and be a leadership benchmark.

Furthermore, leaders and workers are faced with a litany of vital, volatile infrastructure platforms and systems. They include: eLeaning, content management, groupware, workflow-ERP-BI OLAP software, portal amalgamation, peer2peer, wireless, mass collaboration, omnimedia and more. This continuum of technology breakthroughs will gateway expanding government and business opportunities. They will open new vistas for knowledge worker and organizational alignment. Executive, KM insight could allow plug-and-play response in an otherwise time coveting, stringless labyrinth.

The most pronounced schism in KM implementation has been “culture”. Executive management needs to recognize that cultural barriers are actually the transitional difference between insular, information structures and mindsets, versus knowledge based, interactive structures and mindsets. Communicating this reality en masse is a CEO / CIO / CKO (Chief Knowledge Officer) imperative.

The knowledge infrastructure is team-based, modular. Ideally, teams implement projects, which form processes. Processes are woven together via organizational communities armed with enterprise teaming impetus and competency (best practices) coordination. eLearning should become pandemic and immersed in everyday knowledge mining, sharing and oversight activities. Knowledge worker roles, productivity and performance should germinate under an executive rendering of organizational vision.

At the Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Policy Studies, Dr. Arnold Packer has been dedicated to knowledge worker infrastructure development for over a decade. In 1992, Dr. Packer directed the largest IT research initiative ever undertaken. SCANS, which was developed at the behest of Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole in conjunction with industry leaders and the AEA, gave precocious definition to basic, requisite knowledge worker competencies.

Dr. Packer has developed a “Career Transcript System” that provides tools for fundamental KM infrastructure. His Career Transcript is a precursor to the Department of Labor’s Career Management Account. The CMA is a vehicle for adding knowledge infrastructure necessities such as certification, team, supervisory evaluations, and self appraisal to traditional resumes and degrees. Dr. Packer’s SCANS competencies’ implementations are proving successful in high schools and major industry. Dr. Packer sees this team-group paradigm as, “the future of education”. Dr. Packer’s CTS provides a curriculum for integrated, organizational, KM relationships and roles.

The National Security Agency has been working on a skills based, knowledge management model for over six years. In concert with Dr. Packer’s work, the American Electronic Association’s “Knowledge and Skills Framework”, The Labor Department “Career Management Account”, NSSB, O’NET and SCANS, the Defense Department’s “Advanced Distributed Learning” initiative, and the National Defense University’s portal implementations, NSA’s former chief skills architect, Mike Brown, and RC Holmes’ KnowNet Consultancy have fashioned a skills centric KM framework for the enterprise. Mr. Brown’s SkillsNET Corporation is evolving skills science for essential economic progress. Mike Brown has initiated seminal, skills-evolving, knowledge portals for education, business and government interworking in 24 states.

KnowNet Consultancy foresees skills as the “referential enterprise kernel” for the people-centric, business model. According to the Delphi Group, “The knowledge portal will have the ability to integrate enterprise workflow at the user interface.” IBM extends portal prowess to combine data management with organizational community infrastructure, “Portals will have dynamic peer awareness within the use of contextual relationships.” (KM, 01) eLearning, content, and structured-unstructured data management systems may be forged as skills-centric. Correlating learning objects with business objects is the granular component, which Mr. Brown is implementing in his portals. HR may hub human capital capture, mapping skills and competencies to KM infrastructure via eSystems and communities of organization.

Accenture’s newly formed Indeliq is the specific which illuminates the thesis herein. Indeliq is dedicated to visual simulation based upon reports of up to 15 derivation increases in learning cognition and retention. (indeliq.com, 10/01) Indeliq curricula include: Creating Competitive Advantage, Evaluating Market Opportunities and Maximizing Operational Performance. The implications for learning advancement and communication are unbounded. Evolving technology may be used to keep pace with evolving technology.

RC Holmes,
President
KnowNet Consultancy
Voice: 410 391 6393
email rcholmes@hotmail.com

Notice to recipient: This communication is meant only for the recipient and may be a communication privileged by law. If you received this email in error; any review, use dissemination, distribution, or copying of this email or its contents is strictly prohibited. Please notify us immediately of the error by return mail and delete this message from your system.

The Brookings Institute is America's and the federal gov think tank for policy. The analysis below is my codensation of their four year study on the "New Economy" (Knowledge Environment-Economy).

Brookings felt a four year R&D effort betwixt business-gov and educational leaders was requisite to assimilate the massive transition which will inevitably occur. The Department of Defense (world's R&D leader) and their Acquisition and Logistics Agency, along with the Services are now moving into the Knowledge Environment. Secretary Rumsfeld declared, "War is 90% intelligence. Power must move to the edge (individual soldier in decision making) to address an adaptive enemy."

Their Acquisition Agency speaks KE---intellectual capital, life long learning, community sharing, etc. Business muat similarly adapt.

BROOKINGS TASK FORCE REPORT: UNSEEN WEALTH

“Knowledge enables everything. Intellectual capital wraps 80% of corporate assets.”
The Gartner Group (Loyola 3/01)

RC Holmes, (C) May, 2001

The business case for knowledge management is made by an implicit, big picture understanding of the Knowledge Economy. This document validates vast potential wealth from Knowledge Economy assets and infrastructure.

The Brookings Task Force report, Unseen Wealth, issues a clear warning, “Our New Knowledge Economy lacks infrastructure.” This may result in, “long term economic and policy misdirection for business and government.” However, historic opportunities in business and education may be unparalleled.

We face an economic eclipse of sobering magnitude. Intangible assets now outweigh capital assets. BTF elucidates, “We lack a reliable business model, management capability, defined measurements, or even a clear vocabulary for a New Economy.”

The Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Policy Studies has solutions. (KEstructure) The New Economy can be reconciled as part of a larger “Knowledge Environment”. Our Knowledge Environment (KE) dwarfs the passing information age, just as networks overshadow computers. Our KE kindles global knowledge, which is fueled by infinite peer-to-peer conversations. This ignites unending new patterns of knowledge development. Traditional barriers of time, distance, geography, location, and culture are subject to dismissal. (virtualcollab)

The pervasive KE is characterized by three “tidal waves of change”: 1) Exponential Change, 2) Environmental Shift, and 3) Inter-institutional Virtualization. (virtualcollab)
The enormity of any one of these historic variables descending upon civilization is incalculable. The fact that they are confluent warrants focused consternation.

BTF’s queries lead to Knowledge Economy insight. BTF notes that today’s Knowledge Management (KM) forays are ad hoc and situational. Establishing corporate vision is problematic. Communities of interest and communities of practice are culture impaired. This initial infrastructure reflects the transition from an information environment (hierarchical infrastructure) to a Knowledge Environment (horizontal processes).

IBM, Intel, Microsoft corporate commitment to the Knowledge Economy validates KE direction. Tools for KM ubiquity are hot on the anvil. KnowNet, in conjunction with the Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Policy Studies and SkillsNET, believes that we can offer a framework for building a business model and infrastructure for these challenges. (KEstructure) This framework promises to engender solutions for business, education, and government interworking for the 21st century. (virtualcollab)
Knowledge Economy Infrastructure

Intangible asset growth is the harbinger of KE dominance. The Brookings Task Force (BTF) refers to four sources of intangible wealth: 1) research and development, 2) human capital, 3) intellectual capital, and 4) brand names. “For the most part, they do not appear on corporate balance sheets.”

I. Research and Development: KE Bellwether

Research and Development is the foremost process undergoing Knowledge or Change Management (KM) implementation. The power to link a myriad of minds in context with unlimited documents and knowledge sources lies beyond precedent. These capabilities will produce streams of global, collaborative communities of interest and communities of practice. Ubiquitous knowledge creation and delivery could be accelerated dramatically.

ROI increases may be secondary only to gains in societal well being. The world-wide avoidance of duplication of effort and elimination of resource redundancy speaks to coup-like ROI economies. Reduction of error, ongoing filtering of knowledge, process purification, and automated communications could catalyze KE dominance in all major markets.

Research and development is only the lead process in this KE montage. The KE savvy corporation could use the same logistics to transform all information age departments into knowledge distilling, time saving processes. These processes could be interwoven by the dynamic formation and reformation of cross-functional teams. This infrastructure could be supported and enhanced by cost effective eSystems. (KEstructure).Increases in customer satisfaction and empowerment should be the resultant bottom line.

II, Human Capital: Economic Lifeblood

Human Capital is the interactive medium for the 21st century Knowledge Economy. Workforce quality will dictate: 1) knowledge development, 2) knowledge transfer,
3) knowledge collaboration, 4) knowledge harvesting, and 5) knowledge utilization. Human capital teaming will be the conduit for these activities.

Effective human capital will work in concert with a continuum of advancing eSystems. (KEstructure) These systems may simultaneously provide: 1) human capital skill and competency development, 2) on-line support for timely task, project and process execution, and 3) support for tactical and strategic market activities.

The litany of eSystems awaiting human capital integration and mastery is formidable. They include: learning management, content management, skill management, customer relationship management, DSS, KM, supply chain management, ERP, portals, project management, process management, inter-intra-nets, peer-to-peer platforms, video on demand, wireless, pda’s, voice recognition, storyboarding, data warehousing, simulation, modeling, edutainment, groupware, AI, business intelligence, BPR, etc.

Business Case: The rate of assimilating and deploying these competitive necessities will depend upon the skills and talents of human capital. Systemic interdependency, exponential change, and workflow integration will create a continuum of complex, innovative infrastructure developments. Human capital will be responsible for their implementation and matriculation. Early corporate cultivation of a human capital and KE infrastructure could result in significant increases in ROI and KE market share.

Time and timing are crucial determinants of KE competitive advantage. We have yet to fully realize that speed may be the key human capital deliverable from within the KE enterprise. Collaborative communities and teamed workflow, in concert with eSystems, speed-up learning, content amalgamation, and all end-to-end enterprise processes. Per example, Bill Gates sees, “research & development and market development are becoming simultaneous activities.”

Understanding the knowledge revolution’s impact upon the supply and demand for human capital is paramount. The information age quickly produced an IT skills shortage, which became the number one concern of our nation’s CEO’s. Compared to our dirth of knowledge worker preparedness, the IT worker shortfall may seem incidental.

The “US Senate’s Report to The President: Crisis in Human Capital” (Fall 2000) amplifies concern over workforce requirements. (senatecrisis) As BTF intimates, our leadership needs help in addressing our KE conundrum Bill Gates warns of, “a coming war for talent.”

Accenture estimates that, “In this decade over 60% of our workforce will be comprised of knowledge workers.” Knowledge workers require skill sets that are almost antipodal to those produced by today’s 18th century, Horace Mann, educational system. Mann’s model was based upon the 17th century Prussian Army. Over fifteen thousand, separate, parochial, school boards will need constructive guidance to meet impending human capital requirements. (virtualcollab)

Competencies are the generic nomenclature used to categorize requisite skill sets for the knowledge worker. Donald White, Cofounder Human Capital Technology, describes competencies as the “how” of human performance in sharing, using and leveraging knowledge.

Competencies and their relationship to traditional education were defined in 1992, The Secretary of Labor, Elizabeth Dole, championed the “Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills” (SCANS). This august body of national leaders was the largest IT effort ever undertaken.

SCANS requires the basic 3 R’s and elevates speaking and listening to primary status. It recognizes the importance of personality traits like responsibility, trust and sociability. Problem solving and higher level thinking skills are also requisite.

SCANS cites five competency domains:

1) Planning (budgets, schedules, space and people)
2) Information (acquiring, evaluating, organizing, and communicating)
3) Systems (systemic understanding, monitoring, and designing)
4) Technology (using and choosing)
5) Interpersonal (teamwork, teaching, negotiating and diversity)

Dr. Arnold Packer, Chair of the SCANS Center at Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Policy Studies, has implemented a SCANS learning model in schools and industry. In addition, Dr. Packer’s Career Transcript System frames an infrastructure that could further integrate eSystem capabilities into business and education. (KEportal)

The KE may also positively transform employee motivation.. Intel, Pepsi, Microsoft and others have reported that a KE workplace produces a high energy “beehive” effect on employee activity. Dr. Packer’s work indicates strong receptivity and responsiveness to similar teaming-peer-SCANS paradigms.

eSystems may be the primary tool used to measure, manage, support and educate human capital for the KE. It seems reasonable that education migrate accordingly.

III. Intellectual Capital: KE Pointers

BTF identifies intellectual capital as patents, copyrights and trade secrets. In the information age the control and valuation of these assets was fairly static. The fluid nature of the Knowledge Economy (KE) expands their roles along new avenues for corporate success. (KEportal)

Patents illustrate the efficacy of KE infrastructure. Eastman Kodak workers claim nearly 20,000 patents. Kodak has built a patent-centric infrastructure to optimize competitive advantage. Patent knowledge used to be relegated to obtuse papers and storage vaults. Using KM, Kodak has made patents a pivotal, collaborative corporate strategy.

A knowledge management infrastructure supports three primary activities:

1) data and information mining,
2) collaboration and knowledge harvesting
3) knowledge flow engineering and oversight.

Eastman Kodak has engaged these fundamentals to create a foundation for a KM architecture. Kodak mines patent information with KE precision. Language processing software continually sorts through Kodak’s thousands of patents. Contextual relationships are matched with content from international patent offices’ records, news feeds, etc. The Clear Research software establishes a linkage map to correlate these sources for employees needs. It then, “crystallizes the knowledge visually so that workers can see the relationships.” (KM 2/01)

Sharing patent knowledge throughout the enterprise is critical. Internal decisions are affected in almost every department. Patent intelligence is extended to inter-business decisions on partnering, mergers, acquisitions, market timing, et al. Patent KM is used to determine competitors' strategies and protect market rights.

Kodak has built a KM infrastructure framework. They have developed a platform for communities of interest and communities of practice along with eSystem matriculation.. They are in position to extend their fledgling competitive advantage farther into the KE.
The KE value of patents is big business. IBM estimates that in 1993 it earned $350 million from patent licenses. Today, that figure is at $1 billion or 20% of IBM’s annual profits. BTF’s question may be, “What is Kodak’s KE infrastructure worth and how do we value it?”

Copyright turbulence heralds future KE dynamics. Napster’s Supreme Court incursion is a prelude to ever stronger KE migration. Global legions of children have learned to download and copy all forms of text and media for free. They use these peer-to-peer systems to share knowledge with their friends. These knowledge trends are the opening utterances of universal human interaction and knowledge development. They presage KE redefinition of business, education and culture.

This movement is reinforced by last summer’s formation of the Peer To Peer Working Group by Intel, HP, IBM and others. This coalition forecasts a future for a seamless, cross platform, transfer of knowledge. A P2P KE could mirror human interaction.

IBM previews more imminent automation, “In two years, portals will have dynamic peer awareness using contextual relationships.” The emerging capability to correlate content, learning, users, projects, processes and opportunities, and coordinate them with dynamic context control, may alter copyright models and assessment.

With knowledge being omnipresent, copyright value should increase. However, copyright enforcement could conflict with time-critical learning, matrixed processes, and simple convenience. Also, copyrighted material has an estimated half-life of 3.5 years. Global law will vary. This skews the efficacy of enforcement. Control, measurement and assessment may become a function of inter-institutional eSystems. (KEportal)

Trade Secrets are vulnerable in a KE. Institutional collaboration and interworking lowers firewalls and security safeguards. The 1980’s brought outsourcing. The 1990’s gave us co-opetition. Multitudinous partnerships, mergers, acquisitions and collaborative ventures have occurred. In the 21st century, we have mass-collaboration. This is a knowledge trend wherein hundreds of businesses may gather business intelligence and share it globally. Hewlett Packard and its ilk are currently doing this with sales opportunities.

Trade secrets may be impacted by other KE trends. Microsoft says that all of its products will be replaced within three years, making their trade secrets ephemeral. Collaborative communities may emphasize knowledge access over sequestering knowledge. Exponential technology change and severe qualified worker shortages may favor unfettered teaming over knowledge protection. Knowledge worker transience translates into portable knowledge and reduced loyalty.

The open, shared-knowledge basis of a KE makes intellectual assets simultaneously more valuable and more vulnerable. Pricewaterhouse Coopers estimates, “Losses from intellectual property theft for US-based companies to be about $300 billion annually.” (ASIS) The societal gains from intellectual property’s knowledge transferability may alter traditional views. Business eSystems, KM engineering and our quality of life may benefit from intellectual property rights equanimity.

IV. Brand Name: KE Light House

In a global network economy, consisting of billions of people, brand name could take on new dimensions of value. Brand name implies identifiable quality, longevity, service, recourse, noteworthy market share, as well as imparting a general sense of trust and assurance.

In an Internet sea of uncertainty, where the fictitious and fragile may be given equal weight with the substantive, brand name is a traceable beacon of visibility. As an intangible asset, this may translate into added value in co-opetition, distribution, new market penetration, advanced and timely market acceptance, supply chain leverage, and more. Continued KE success will likely depend on sophisticated eSystem integration and the ability to command a necessary share of a shrinking talent supply. Brand name attention and investment should be magnified.

SUMMARY: With new tools come new rules.

Copyright
RC Holmes
21 Lomond Court
Baltimore, Maryland 21237
rcholmes@hotmail.com
410 391 6393

This work serves as a template for societal change based upon inter-institutional interworking. Previous writings, which I sent to the Governor, got him to include the "Maryland Automated Information Technology Initiative" in his supplemental budget in 1998. Dr. Kirwan, President (now Chancellor) of the University of Maryland called to thank me personally as the U of MD has long been a eLearning leader.

The Department of Defense is embarking on a similar drive called "conciliation" for the services to interwork. The Dept. of Acquisition and Logistics and the Navy are adopting interworking motifs as well as speaking Knowledge Environment-ease. Homeland Security adds urgency to interworking-collaboration and the federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) mandate for all gov IT procurements brings more weight to KE dominance.

When education matriculates (herein), than there will be no limits on accomplishment.

GOVERNOR'S VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLE of
INDUSTRY / EDUCATION / GOVERNMENT COLLABORATION

Strategic Knowledge Economy Infrastructure ?

To Governor Parris Glendening, Senators Mikulski, Sarbanes and Ehrlichman, Maryland and national leadership, January 10, 2000 by
RC Holmes (C) May,1999 (rev.1/00)

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

We are at war ! Economic war ! Workforce development and educational migration are the critical supply lines for our future success.

An explosion of UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE ACCESS threatens more chaos than war. It can erase geography, distance, location, and time in a micro-second. It can cross national borders, attack cultural precedents, and disable or enable entire economic sectors in a mind blink.

The enemy is us. We lack organization. We are attempting to engage in a 21st century war using 20th century concepts. Workforce development and educational migration are the same event. Accelerating technology demands that our institutions coordinate their attack plans and pool their resources.

Our global, knowledge economy can inflict change at history shattering speeds. This ubiquitous, economic engine is fueled by seamless, communications processes. It is built from a wealth of technology, that is ever improving. The result is a level of time-sensitive, institutional complexity, which lies outside of previous human experience. eBusiness and ecommerce are just a beginning. WE NEED SHARED READINESS.

The best plan is a simple plan. The Governor's Roundtable outlines five steps
1) identify knowledge economy needs (pages 4-11)
2) form a leadership infrastructure (Membership Survey, page 10)
3) develop an inter-institutional, knowledge economy, program matrix
4) construct an Internet portal for program collaboration
5) involve the region

The primary tool used to accomplish these milestones is the Internet. Initially, new, inexpensive and user-friendly groupware would be deployed. It would allow our leaders to be just down the hall? from each other.

The Governor's Roundtable mirrors knowledge economy growth by forming a seamless, communications workflow between institutions. Time is optimized. Workflow is directed. Insight is reinforced. Industry, education and government are aligned for swift response to our DEEPENING DIGITAL DIVIDE.

Once everyone is on the same page, we can begin to discover the true promise of our emerging Knowledge Environment. Meta-learning and opportunity can be made available to all learners. Parents, teachers and communities can congeal and heal. Education and the workplace can be given symbiotic techno-strength..

THE CHALLENGE?

After the first nuclear explosion, Mankind has just increased their power a
thousand fold; but, we have not changed the way we think.?
Albert Einstein........the 1940s

The medium is the message. We are driving into the future looking into our rear view mirror.� Marshall McLuhan...the 1960s

As the Internet and eCommerce reach critical mass, the turbulent rate of change experienced during the last decade could increase 6 fold.
Bill Gates....................1999

The Information Age is dying. It is being displaced by a robust Knowledge Environment (KE) of infinite potential. Universal knowledge, available to anyone, anywhere, 24 hours a day, is reweaving the fabric of civilization.

In a scant two decades, the Information Age (IT) devolved our educational system into crisis. IT made workforce development our foremost business concern. Reactionary, band-aid approaches are not close to solving either.

Meanwhile, an emerging knowledge economy may dwarf the IT invasion. Arthur Anderson estimates that, Sixty per cent of our 21st century workforce will be comprised of knowledge workers.? Knowledge work requires a visionary restructuring of business and education.

IT has left us in workforce shambles. Major events threaten: 1) only two qualified applicants for every seven IT positions; 2) shameful multitudes of well paid IT jobs unfilled; 3) thousands of techno-immigrants inheriting positions for which our children are untrained; 4) education is fragmented.

A global KE could be far more scathing. Any increase in the rate of technology acceleration could ignite, what Bill Gates calls, “the coming WAR for talent.? By creating a Governor's Virtual Roundtable of Industry / Education / Government Collaboration our leadership can establish a reasonable hope of keeping up.

Our 21st Century Knowledge Environment / Economy

A PARADIGM DIVIDE

Just as civilization used to follow the rivers, it now follows technology.
By understanding knowledge technology, we can sculpt the future of economic development and learning systems.

A Knowledge Environment (KE) facilitates sharing knowledge. When knowledge is shared globally, infinite new patterns of human dialogue are created. When these exchanges are organized by new tools such as: the Internet, intranets, web crawlers, portals, groupware, etc., new rules prevail world-wide.

Moving from an information age to a Knowledge Environment approaches a paradigm eclipse. The difference between KE and IT is as profound as the difference between information and knowledge.

Information is single, solitary, alone. It can be substantiated or unsubstantiated. Disinformation can be weighted equally with information. The information age was dominated by one directional devices like television. One way information curtailed response. People became isolated and passive.

Knowledge reawakens human interaction. To form knowledge, information must be massaged by human action. Moving society from passive to interactive represents a 180 degree paradigm shift within the human drama. When such monumental force is compounded by an incomprehensible rate of change, history must hold its breath.

The Governor's Roundtable is based upon understanding the Knowledge Environment and where it can take us. The KE centers upon three principles:
1) exponential change, 2) environmental shift, and 3) institutional virtualization.

Exponential Change

The speed of communications has increased exponentially. We have gone from kilobits (10>3) in the early 1980's, to gigabits (10>9) in the 1990s. Terabit (10>12) communications are coming. Per analogy: if you were making a thousand dollars a week in 1980, you would make a billion dollars a week today.

Computer cost performance has steadily improved in accordance with Moore's law, doubling every 18 months. Some firms are giving them away. We have prototypes of computers millions of times faster than those of today.

Global networks-Internet give birth to societal scenarios without any precedent. Networks bring infinite human communication to your front door. New media bathe these waves of change in creativity. Metamedia promise a quantum leap forward in learning. According to research by the Department of Defense and The National Institute of Standards and Technology, visualization can increase student capabilities up to seventy per cent.

Digitization provides a single, universal language to bring us knowledge wealth.

Virtual reality has Herculean potential. In Steven Spielberg's Starbright Project, virtual reality is the harbinger of educational promise. Disabled children in separate hospitals are able to play and learn together in virtual environments...of their own making...adopting persona of their own choosing...in real time.

Environmental Shift

When history looks back upon the information environment, it should be little
more than a footnote to the immense Knowledge Environment. Just as computers are being subsumed by networks, and information is only a pliant component of knowledge, the information age will be a mere prelude to the KE.

When computers are networked, people network. Networked people are most productive when they think and operate as a team. These teams learn to access information and to build knowledge. Team-directed, knowledge transfer is becoming the competitive advantage of business.

Work teams network together to form KE business processes. In turn, these processes network together to connect institutions. Institutions learn to share knowledge. The Governor's Roundtable forms inter-institutional processes.

Networks encourage the old environment limits of geography, distance, location and time to be rudely dismissed. With these separations removed, the environments of school, work, home, and community, can shift. They can use technology to work together in harmony to expedite social advancement.

Our media children? have shifted environments. They have computers, Internet, sound systems, DVD, wireless, etc. These are the tools of the child's future work and learning environments. Align our children's environments.

Institutional Virtualiztion
In the early 1980's, computers became interconnected by wires. In the late 1980's, computers became interoperable via networks. In the 1990's, computers interworked via program exchange..

People and their institutions will migrate accordingly. Today, most of us are physically interconnected by wires and air borne signals. We can interoperate via common media. Next, we must expand the art of interworking with each other by sharing and building knowledge.

eCommerce and eBusiness herald institutional interworking. Electronic government follows closely behind. Distance learning moves education toward eLearning. The Governor's Roundtable takes the next, evolutionary step:
inter-institutional alignment to narrow OUR DIGITAL DIVIDE.

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT OUTLOOK

Currently, the outlook for workforce development is dire. Rampant technology complexity, exacerbated by volatile business competition, will leave a dwindling pool of workforce talent to address an expanding arena of economic opportunity. Industry must have up-to-date support from education and government.

The contemporary workplace is computer dependent, media intensive, and network critical. Computer literacy, media skills, and network literacy are as fundamental to the 21st century knowledge worker as reading, writing and arithmetic were to the 20th century work order.

Business needs serious support for life-long learning. It is ominous when Microsoft says that all of their products will be obsolete in three years? Add to this corporate re-engineering. Then multiply those learning curves by the market impact of ecommerce and the Internet. Now you have the formula for executive consternation and cooperation.

Reluctantly, industry is in the education business. Industry is spending hundreds of billions of dollars every year on internal training. Some industries are forming their own K-12 curricula. There are over 400 corporate colleges. Certifiable skills are more valuable than degrees. Distance learning has proven to be an exciting, invaluable learning technology. Given these germinating trends, educators should be eager to be at the same roundtable with business and government.

There are other compelling reasons why education and industry must work shoulder to shoulder. Knowledge work emphasizes the group as the central work unit. Workers are being hired for their teaming skills as well as their technical skills. It follows that education should teach these skills. Armed with understanding, inter-institutional support can fire-up targeted action.

Benchmark Solutions

Precedent for the Governor's Roundtable has already proven successful. The State of Washington has built an inter-institutional infrastructure. Over 150 industries are united with community colleges, state agencies, universities, high schools and foundations. Recently, the state allocated $80 million in funding for fiber optic connections to all schools..

Seattle's Northwest Center for Emerging Technologies serves as the hub for industry / education / government collaboration. Visionaries from Bell Atlantic, Johns Hopkins, Microsoft, Boeing, GTE, IBM, etc. sit on its board. An insightful statement as to the Northwest success comes from David Gluth, Executive Vice President for Pioneer Industries. He said, "For the first time education is listening to us."

Seattle's business and education partnership uses a KE model pioneered by Dr. Arnold Packer at the Johns Hopkins Policy Institute. This American Electronics Association "Knowledge and Skills Framework" prescribes a workflow model for the evolvement of business and education.

North Seattle Community College used Dr. Packer's work as a cornerstone for educational reform. They have implemented a curriculum with the team as the operative learning unit for teachers and students. Courses are modular and contiguous. Collaboration with industry establishes continuity between education and the workplace. A 200% increase in math and a 150% increase in science do not diminish student excitement. Students can see real life rewards for their efforts. Industry gets employees who are up to speed.

AEA's workforce criteria are based upon skill standards developed by the Department of Labor's National Skills Standards Board (NSSB). The NSSB aims to provide portable, certifiable, and classifiable high skill criteria for 70% of America’s workforce. A majority of states have created state skills standards boards to support this pivotal, national movement.

Another regional success story looms out of Springfield Technical Community College in Massachusetts and the Northeast Center for Telecommunications Technology. Fourteen community colleges collaborate with fourteen high schools for high skill job training. Associate degree graduates are commanding salaries up to $56,000. Gateways to higher learning institutions are provided. Bell Atlantic'sNext Step� program uses groupware to coordinate seminal
inter-institutional activities.

This collaborative program has created its own high tech, regional economy. Major and fledgling industries from throughout the nation have set up shop in the Northeast to tap this workforce paradigm.

The Governor's Virtual Roundtable is designed to leapfrog both of these efforts. The Internet clearly trumpets the entrance of the KE. With a shared understanding of KE dynamics, industry, education, and government can: identify KE trends, evaluate mutual needs, adapt existing programs, adopt new programs, and collaborate strategically.

Solutions for Education

OUR DIGITAL DIVIDE begins and ends with education. It exists between the haves and have-nots, the old and the young, students and teachers, parents and children, urban and suburban areas, business and education, what is and what was. It is growing. It is pervasive. It is ubiquitous. It is a function of education.

The Governor's Roundtable supplies crucial inter-institutional support. Our educational system cannot fill the void alone. Buying technology, retraining teachers, and developing curricula are costly. Our educational policy-makers are fragmented into over 15,000, conceptually divided, school boards. Be assured, we will not leap across OUR DIGITAL DIVIDE without unified impetus.

Not only is OUR DIGITAL DIVIDE between business and education becoming unmanageable, it may worsen significantly. eLearning should accompany ebusiness and ecommerce.

In the long run, it may be education that becomes the greatest beneficiary of KE acceptance. The KE “people toolsâ€? of communication and universal knowledge can produce rev-elationary learning motifs for teachers, students, parents, and communities. In a Knowledge Environment, education can flourish.

Sometimes a simple specific can illuminate a strong generalization. Picasso used to exalt when he found a new shade of yellow. Today, third graders can command a spectrum of colors; organize them into myriad perspectives; make them come alive through animation; and, instantaneously share their creativity throughout the world, with chosen peers of common interests.

Government: A Strong KE Resource

The State of Maryland has numerous, excellent, KE infrastructure components. Among these are the governor’s commissions on workforce development and higher education. Noteworthy KE programs include: a software development consortium, Career Connections, a community college teleconsortium, Maryland Online, an automated technology initiative, seminal distance learning projects, Maryland Technology Summits, and a state-wide fiber optic backbone.

These programs are all KE interrelated. Even more importantly, they are also related to other KE efforts in industry, education and government. Furthermore as technology accelerates, these programs could become more valuable if they coincide with daily activities at other institutions. The Governor’s Roundtable would support this eventuality.

The Federal Government has also shone “KE brightlyâ€?. The National Science Foundation provided seed money for regional programs in the Northeast and Seattle The Department of Labor has over twenty workforce development programs. Education has 200 support programs. The Commerce Department is doing extensive KE infrastructure and curricula building. The White House sponsors Internet connection for all schools; as well as, advanced distance learning projects for workforce development at the Department of Defense.

The quandary of government is that most of these programs work in a vacuum. They are often interrelated and interdependent. However, because our KE remains unrecognized and undefined, there exists no central matrix to synergize the latent power therein.

A prime example of this undersight is the “Advanced Distance Learning Initiativeâ€? (ADL) at the Department of Defense. In conjunction with major industry and education leaders, the DOD is developing platforms for distance learning content and distribution, “to accelerate large scale development.â€?.

In turn, ADL projects use distance learning to facilitate workforce development. The training standards employed in these projects are based on those being put forth by the Department of Labor and its National Skills Standards Board.

This inter-institutional relationship enhances distance learning and the National Skills Standards Movement simultaneously. NSSB is developing skills and skill development criteria for almost every industry. The DOD’s distance learning platforms could make these certifiable and verifiable skills universally available. In turn, education could effectively work with industry to provide an agenda of basic, academic skill standards to augment online curricula.

Distance Learning: KE Enabler

Distance learning may be the linchpin to the largest business opportunity in history, a four trillion dollar ($4,000,000,000,000) international market place. Being far more than shared lecture, distance learning can deliver a cornucopia of learning experiences. These include: global knowledge access, shared research, government resource availability, student’s choice of programs, custom designed education for each student, peer group learning, apprentice work programs, workplace integration, computer and network literacy, CBT, community participation, and a continuum of upgraded methodologies and content for all traditional curricula.

Most major corporations and institutions of higher learning are using distance learning. It is on-time, on-line and on demand. It can serve unlimited students on a global basis. It is universally upgradeable, avoids duplication, and can accommodate varying learning styles. Distance learning is extremely cost effective.

Research and development, product development and market development are becoming distance learning dependent. Chrysler’s global design team completes work in two weeks, which used to take two years. Research and development and market development are becoming simultaneous events.

Lockheed Martin’s, “Distance Learningâ€?, unveils a dominant eLearning future. “Real-time collaboration technologies will fuel the virtual organizations and work teams of the future...The future of training is to eliminate training and move to information, skill and knowledge support systems.â€? Distance learning and knowledge work will become simultaneous, virtual events

McKinsey consultants report that businesses, who use group processes, spawn an, “energy creating environmentâ€?. Distance learning can bring these same, positive, group experiences to the classroom. Teachers could bask in the role of facilitator of knowledge, rather than being the repository of knowledge.

Cheap, portable, on-line learning systems could bring fairness in job availability to rich and poor alike. Furthermore, it is not difficult to imagine electronic bulletin boards posting transportation, housing, pay rates, etc. Community involvement, community projects, and parental coordination can all be foreseen using distance learning.

Distance learning may be the only technology capable of responding to a potential national emergency. Any purveyor of knowledge based distribution is subject to overnight job elimination, i.e. auto sales, insurance, stocks, retail, administration, etc.

Retraining masses of people would require a vast distance learning infrastructure. Our twentieth century learning infrastructure could not satisfy the demand; keep up with accelerating technology; nor, give adequate insight and career direction, without an inter-institutional infrastructure for action.

THE VISION

Just as an open wound cannot be healed with either band-aids or rhetoric, the vision below and the plan herein speak to demonstrable, simple fairness. All peoples instinctively understand, respect and respond to decent opportunity.

As the Internet is made a part of “every classroomâ€?, the promise of the future becomes clearer: truly equal job opportunity, accessibility, and
real-life rewards from education, all on a cost effective basis.

With the Internet in every classroom, an infrastructure to support “job justiceâ€? for every child can be foreseen. This process begins with the National Skills Standards Board. They are organizing 70% of America’s workforce into 15 industry categories with defined skill sets for each job.

Skill requirements for every job could be made available to every student online. The NSSB skills are to be identifiable, portable, and certifiable. Distance learning could be used to make job criteria visible and affordable. The Department of Labor’s O’NET serves as a national skills referrence.

Educational matriculation for jobs can evolve from the work being done at the Department of Defense. Their “Advanced Distance Learning Initiativeâ€? will provide platforms for content evolvement and “mass distributionâ€? of distance learning applications..

Once each industry has built electronic curricula for each job, distance learning can keep the curricula updated instantly and nationally. This would enable students and employers to benefit by being able to match the speed of technology; upgrade to reflect new technologies; and, provide lifetime learning for all people.

Traditional education could become ever more meaningful. For instance, if you wanted to be a carpenter, first you would have to be a laborer for six months; then an apprentice carpenter for two years. To qualify as a laborer, you would need to meet 6th grade reading and math standards. To be an apprentice, you would need 8th grade reading and math. To be a carpenter, you would not only need 8th grade reading and math; but also, specified social curricula and a diploma. From there you could become an architect, a supervisor, a developer, a plumber and more.

Wages, job availability, location, transportation and other particulars could all be electronically posted, everyday. A partnership between all institutions could be formed. Industry could specify criteria, availability, etc. Communities could offer jobs, transportation, facilities, and tutelage. Government could provide services and coordination. Families could be involved in the process. The educational system could become the backbone of involvement.

The KE group / peer paradigm offers a sense of belonging and provides team goals. In Seattle, they extended their KE education concept to 24 “diversified cityâ€? students learning manufacturing jobs. Not only did all of them show up to work on time, all 24 completed the course. QUITE POWERFUL is the KE.