Knowledge Management at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Dr. Jay Liebowitz

Knowledge Management Officer

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

2

Importance of KMto NASA

• Knowledge bleed due to retirement eligibility

• Changing perspectives on work

• Knowledge loss is escalating

3

Knowledge Sharing Tenets for Success

• Enhance reward and recognition system to include learning and knowledge sharing competencies

• Acquaint people with knowledge sharing and its benefits• Share the message that with creativity comes failure and

we all benefit from talking about our successes and our failures

• Integrate knowledge sharing into everyone’s job• Educate people about what types of knowledge are

valuable and how they can be used• Make sure the technology works for people, not vice

versa

4

KM Components

PEOPLE PROCESS

TECHNOLOGY

Building and Nurturing a Knowledge

Sharing Culture

Systematically Capturing and SharingCritical Knowledge

Creating aUnifiedKnowledge Network

5

People: KM Activities

• Building and nurturing a knowledge sharing environment – Online communities– MyExperts directory– Mentoring Program– Emeritus Program– APPL knowledge sharing forums/APPL Knowledge Sharing Initiative– Creative Learning Groups– Shadowing– Leadership Alchemy Program– Knowledge management education/awareness programs– Agency Learning Initiative – Storytelling career workshops– Knowledge sharing proficiency development)

6

PBMA

7

Online Community via PBMA

8

myExperts

9

Process: KM Activities

• Systematically capturing and sharing knowledge – Knowledge gap and culture survey

– Knowledge preservation project

– Records retention project

– Case studies

– LLIS/NGLLIS

– Exit interviews

– Center-wide mini-courses/tutorials/colloquia webcasts

– Active involvement with GRAA

10

Capturing and Disseminating GSFC Knowledge

11

Webcasts of Colloquia

12

LLIS (http://llis.nasa.gov)

13

Technology: KM Activities

• Creating a unified knowledge network– myGoddard intranet portal– Multimedia asset management system and

network infrastructure– Web-based knowledge and record repositories

14

myGoddard Intranet

15

KM Research Topics

Develop “active” analysis and dissemination techniques for knowledge sharing and searching via “intelligent” agent technology (i.e., where “learning” takes place)

--Apply knowledge discovery techniques (e.g., data/text mining, neural networks, etc.) for mining knowledge bases/repositories

--Improve query capabilities through natural language understanding techniques

--Develop metrics for measuring value-added benefits of knowledge management

--Develop standardized methodologies for knowledge management development and knowledge audits

--Provide improved techniques for performing knowledge mapping and building knowledge taxonomies/ontologies

16

KM Research Topics (cont.)

--Develop techniques for building collaborative knowledge bases--Develop improved tools for capturing knowledge from various media

(look at multimedia mining to induce relationships among images, videos, graphics, text, etc.)

--Develop techniques for integrating databases to avoid stovepiping, functional silos

--Build improved software tools for developing and nurturing communities of practice

--Develop techniques for categorizing, synthesizing, and summarizing lessons learned (look at text summarization techniques)

--Explore ways to improve human-agent collaboration --Explore human language technologies for KM (input analysis, extraction,

question-answer, translation, etc.—see S. Staab, Nov/Dec 2001, Intelligent Systems)

17

LLIS

• Over 1,100 lessons captured from 13 sites over the past six years

• Grew out of a graduate student’s thesis

18

Trend: Increasing Submission of Lessons Learned

Lessons Entered by Fiscal Year

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

10/95to

9/96

10/96to

9/97

10/97to

9/98

10/98to

9/99

10/99to

9/00

10/00to

9/01

10/01to

9/02

Year

Nu

mb

er

of

Lesso

ns

Reformatted

Projected

Actual

19

Trend: Increasing Lessons Accessed

Lessons Accessed

02000400060008000

1000012000140001600018000

10/95to 9/96

10/96to 9/97

10/97to 9/98

10/98to 9/99

10/99to 9/00

10/00to 9/01

10/01to 9/02

Year

Nu

mb

er o

f L

esso

ns

Projected

Actual

20

Lesson Learned Template

• Subject/Title/Topic(s)• Description of the Driving Event• Lesson(s) Learned• Recommendation(s)• Applicable NASA Enterprises• Applicable Crosscutting Processes• Additional Key Phrases• Author/Submitting Organization/Lesson Date/etc.

21

Challenges Facing the LLIS

• Maintainability

• Expandability

• Usability

22

Proof of Concept Developed for NGLLIS

• “Push” feature completed and implemented• NGLLIS functional requirements developed• NGLLIS design document/development plan/work

breakdown structure developed• Section 508 compliance issues researched and tools

being purchased• Visual prototype/proof of concept developed• Tracking management function (will be included)• Lesson Value Rating System (will be included)

23

NGLLIS Prototype Screen Shot

24

Summary• KM is one of the hottest

topics in industry & govt today

• Need to have methodologies, processes, techniques, and tools for KM

• 90% is building the culture

• Need to apply concepts from AI and other disciplines to advance KM

25

References to Get Started

• Rumizen, M. (2002), The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Knowledge Management, CWL Publishing.

• Liebowitz, J. and T. Beckman (1998), Knowledge Organizations: What Every Manager Should Know, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

• Liebowitz, J. (ed.)(1999), The Knowledge Management Handbook, CRC Press.

• Liebowitz, J. (2000), Building Organizational Intelligence: A Knowledge Management Primer, CRC Press.

26

Other References

• Davenport, T. and L. Prusak (1998), Working Knowledge, Harvard Business School Press

• Cortado, J. and J. Woods (1999), Knowledge Management Yearbook 1999-2000.

• Davenport, T. and J. Beck (2001), The Attention Economy, HBS Press

• Journal of Knowledge Management/Journal of Int. Capital (MCB University Press)

• Journal of Knowledge and Process Management (John Wiley)

• KMWorld; Summer 2001 Journal of MIS; km.gov