DoD Knowledge Management Conference & Expo

DGI's inaugural DoD Knowledge Management Conference gathered over 230 professionals representing both DoD and civilian agencies from states and countries including Texas, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Florida, Canada and the UAE.

A panel KM practitioners representing the various military branches kicked-off the conference with a presentation on "Successful DOD KM Programs:  What's Working and Why".  Ronald Simmons, director of knowledge management integration at the Marine Corps Combat Development Command (pictured right), was the session's moderator.  "Commanders want to tackle [projects] that can be completed on their watch, which doesn't work with knowledge management," said Ron, as reported by Federal Computer Week.

Dr. Robert Neilson, knowledge management adviser at the office of the Army Chief Information Officer, and one of the session's panelists (pictured left, with Nancy Jenkins, Knowledge Management Officer, U.S. Second Fleet, U.S. Navy) added "If you think you've [succeeded in knowledge management], you aren't doing knowledge management."  (Other panelists included Bill Robinson, Chief Knowledge Officer, US Joint Forces Command, and Sandy Speake, Chief, Strategic Organizational Development and Lessons Learned, U.S. Air Force Materiel Command).

Often the difficulties with knowledge management are less about governance and more about the work style of individual employees.   "People are not accustomed or trained for collaboration. It's a cultural issue," said Bobby Caudill, solution architect, Global Government Solutions at Adobe (pictured right) , in a session titled "Changing the Way We Work for Valuable, Collaborative Results".

Col. Rose Favors, the chief defense counsel of the U.S. Marine Corps, (pictured left) spoke of collaboration tools to improve the operation of her office in a session titled "KM for Mission Support :  A Case Example".  The defense counsel office includes 40 attorneys and 20 enlisted Marines in offices around the world, including in war zones. Some of these attorneys, not long out of law school, were working in offices by themselves. "I need them to feel the strength of the whole," said Favors, as reported by ComputerWorld.  Favors said she had been getting information via faxes, e-mail and telephone. "I need data; they need knowledge," she said.

Industry executives say the benefits of knowledge management make it worth all the difficulties, reported FCW.   "This is an opportunity to tap into the next frontier. This is a game-changer," said Kay Adams, vice president for talent and organization performance at Accenture National Security Services (pictured right) in a session titled "Using KM to Enable High Performance Mobile and Distributed Workforces".  "This is a new work environment, and in this world people can work whenever, from wherever," she said.

The conference concluded with a lively interactive "KM Buzz Session" where attendees were assigned to small groups to discuss 2 separate topics.  The first was "24K Gold:  Identifying and Transferring Critical 'At-Risk' Knowledge", presented by Jane Maliszewski, Principal, ISKA (Information Strategies for the Knowledge Age).  The second session was titled "Why KM Programs Flounder and How to Save them", presented by Douglas Weidner, Chairman, International KM Institute.  "Facilitators" coordinated the discussion between each group and took notes on attendees' suggestions.  These notes were compiled and shared with all attendees after the conference.  "This was enjoyable and really helped focus some concepts," commented one attendee.

The Expo

Attendees learn more about Adobe solutions.

Brett Peters with FigLeaf (right) and other FigLeaf representatives network with attendees.

Jason Struss with Tomoye (left) talks with attendees during the networking break.

Sandy Speake, U.S. Air Force Materiel Command, a conference speaker, talks with Dan Truit with Autonomy.

What Attendees Said...

• "This was a great event; I was able to network and retain a lot of useful information."
• "I liked hearing about a real-world example of KM in practice."
• "Nice to hear where ALL of the services and JFCOM are in the KM "journey"."
• "Information was excellent."
• "This was enjoyable and really helped focus some concepts."
• "I just loved today's session.  It was great to see many folks here from DOD."
• "Always good to know you are not the "Lone Ranger" in the KM arena."
• "I enjoyed the discussion topics on basics of KM efforts; KM success/failure examples; networking."
• "The networking, getting updates from government KM stakeholders and seeing KM grow was worthwhile."
• "It was a good conference.  I took twelve pages of notes."

Education Advisory Committee Members

DGI thanks the Education Advisory Committee for its input on developing the Conference Program:

• Kay Adams, Vice President, Accenture, ANSS/Air Force
• LTC Nate Allen, U.S. Army and Professor, Information Strategies Department, National Defense University (and co-founder of CompanyCommand.com and co-author of Company Command: Unleashing the Power of the Army Profession
• Robert (Bobby) Caudill, Solution Architect, Global Government Solutions, Adobe
• Robert Hambly, Command Knowledge Manager, Headquarters Joint Special Operations Command
• LTC Brad Hilton, Knowledge Officer, U.S. European Command HQ
• David Hoopengardner, Chief Knowledge Officer, Secretary of the Air Force Financial Management Operations, U.S. Air Force
• Lt Col Michael Hower, Commander, 31st Student Squadron and Program Manager, Air Force Forums, Air Command and Staff College, U.S. Air Force
• Nancy Jenkins, Knowledge Management Officer, U.S. Second Fleet, U.S. Navy
• Jane Maliszewski, Principal, ISKA--Information Strategies for the Knowledge Age, and former CIO, TRADOC, U.S. Army (Ret.)
• Dr. Robert Neilson, Knowledge Management Advisor, Office of the CIO/G-6, U.S. Army
• Bill Robinson, Chief Knowledge Officer, U.S. Joint Forces Command
• Art Schlussel, Business Consultant, KM/ECM
  Ronald Simmons, Director of KM Integration, MCCDC, U.S. Marine Corps
• Sandy Speake, Chief, Strategic Organizational Development and Lessons Learned, U.S. Air Force Materiel Command
• Douglas Weidner, Chairman, International Knowledge Management Institute
• Stacey Young, PhD, Senior KM Advisor, Microenterprise Development Office, U.S. Agency for International Development