The Art of Knowledge

 

Maryland Homeland Security Strategy: A Business Case

For all my Maryland people, here is another letter drafted by R.C. Holmes to Governor Ehrlich about how to address homeland security. Since MD's pipeline is so important to D.C. we found our state at the forefront of any new initiative coming down the Homeland expressway. Here are some excerpts:

Knowledge processes and performance management are the new IT industry mantra. Productivity in almost every category of human endeavor can be dramatically escalated. Critical tactical and strategic deliverables, which are the sole province of knowledge processes, include: real time knowledge, people empowerment, team building and agile event management.

What's a knowledge process? It's an understanding of the way people work. It's the mapping of knowledge that enable the people through the processes. It is also the mapping of the gaps that are there as well.

Since 85% of Homeland infrastructure resides in the private sector, state strategic planning is pivotal. The bulk of Homeland funding will be disbursed through the states. Multiple factors threaten a boondoggle. Funding for existing programs may be bundled within Homeland Security.

Government needs to mobilize the vast private sector. Knowledge processes represent a quantum breakthrough into a new economic world order. Communicating a vision of how collaborative state-business-regional-federal-educational processes can lay the foundation for state and regional economic growth should commandeer private sector leadership.

This is what everyone is jumping on now. The fact that we are fighting for the scraps of the Homeland Security initiative is a little bogus at times. What's even more disconcerting is the inability of many in the industry (well not inability...I should say greed) to simply look to the standards coming down as if they were the only answer. Learning is sedimentary, and exponential. We can't look to one technology as the way. We can however look to one technology as the way to tap into Gov't resources and align Enterprise Architectures.

When faced with historic complexity, the use of the "KISS" (Keep It Simple Stupid) may be advisable. Customer Relations Management (CRM) represents a proven KISS methodology for Homeland Security deployment. CRM is the flagship of Knowledge Management (KM) architecture. It is being used by major organizations to facilitate customer and user collaboration amongst departments, communities, branches, subsidiaries, partners, distribution elements and the supply chain. CRM represents a mature, interactive gateway to process implementation. CRM makes the customer the focal collaborator. The customer is led to grasp the organizational big picture. The customer (user) is encouraged to interact within knowledge processes. Customer's can control the three W's of knowledge processes: What? Why? and Who?

So many people confuse CRM with some out of the box piece of software. CRM within itself is already a dead term. What it stands for is why it is important. It embodies the ideology of making the customer pivotal in the processes. And you can substitute any word for customer. It makes the system viable for the customer to interact with in light of extensive training or human interaction. It provides information and support with minimal effort and without flaw. Basically, CRM thinks.

"Reality has changed forever" was an insightful, post 9/11 sound bite. War had mutated. The terrorists employed KM fundamentals: global communications, self-directed work teams (cells), knowledge processes versus bricks and mortar, etc. Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld declared, "War has become 90% intelligence." (CNN, 12/01) The fundamental architecture of civilization's oldest mainstay had been irrevocably altered. This aberration in history irrefutably presages our need for concurrent, revolutionary, economic and Homeland Security architectural design.

It all starts with a bang. Most major scale projects have to come from somewhere. Unfortunately this one had to come from 9/11, but in hindsight I seem to remember the economy was still doing rather poorly at that time too. So I don't think these reformations would have been too far off. Whether or not the HSD would have been born is another question. But Enterprise Architecture would have hatched either way.

Why hasn't the term "Knowledge Economy" gained mainstream acknowledgment? Ask ten people to define knowledge and you will get ten different answers. The definition of knowledge is found in its root to know. Knowledge is organic information resident in people. This definition may be extended to processes as actively engaged knowledge or "knowledge in transi". All other content is information. Information is defined by the root word to inform. It is latent or inorganic in nature. It is the interactive "people defined architecture" of knowledge that leads us to real time processes.

A singular example of Knowledge Environment phenomena is grid computing. The British government is spending hundred of millions of dollars to build a giant, global, human matrix for collaborative research amongst nuclear and medical communities. Time-to-market, resource conservation, duplication avoidance, matrixed process cross-pollination, etc. are inherent in grid computing.

Grid computing and autonomous computing are going to make the world a different place in about 10 years...maybe even 5. Imagine companies never complaining about processor speeds or lack of storage area. The data and information that could be analyzed and then turned into usable information would be extraordinary.

The brief Information Age made IT skills the number one concern of CEO's at the end of the 20th century. (Wall S. Journal 7/99) The collaborative Homeland environment will demand workforce competency development. Competencies include: inter-personal, systems and technology skills and the ability to manage resources and information. Competencies also include academics, experience, field knowledge, and developing 'an enterprise big picture'.

An educational renaissance should be forthcoming from Homeland Security architectural enlightenment. Corollary economic development demands a new motif. Team -group education is not only mandatory, it has proven to be far superior to current educational dogma.

Link posted by JVMM : 1:26 PM