Information aggregation in a corporate environment

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Information aggregation in a corporate environment

• Bridging silos of information
• Its really about process i.e. publication
  process

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Abstract

• Information, by and large, is created within the
  context of small teams or workgroups. It is not
  uncommon to find that these teams are unaware of
  similar teams creating related content because
  these groups function in different business units
  and are geographically dispersed.
• Consequently, a great deal of information is
  likely to be known by rather small numbers of
  people resulting in duplication of effort and a
  variety of lost opportunities. This presents a
  case for using a variety of methods to aggregate
  similar information authored and maintained by
  many different groups into a single physical or
  virtual point of access.
• I'll discuss
• The local nature of content creation
• The benefits of sharing similar information
  (lessons learned, best practices, etc.)
• The barriers to sharing locally created content
• Trade-offs in physical versus virtually
  aggregation of similar information.

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Who am I?

• I am a Ph.D. engineer who has, over the years,
  stumbled into knowledge management. Ive worked
  on a variety of computing tools for engineers.
  Ive taught engineering math at university. Ive
  worked at Boeing for 15 years.

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Information is created by small groups

• Official workgroups aerodynamics group, Asian
  market group, Product Development replacement
  study group, ...
• Project teams CAD validation study team, ECM
  Architecture team, Life Cycle Product Team
  Wing, ...
• Networks -- Technical Fellows, alumni of Program
  X, legislative analysts, leadership center course
  participants, ...

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Small group environment for knowledge creation

• Trust
• Common Purpose
• Authoring Tools and formats
• Repository
• Funding
• Shared vocabulary and other trappings of cultural
  understanding

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Thematic similarities between disparate groups

• Strength of materials group in Rotorcraft RD
• Manufacturing materials group in BCA
• Assembly mechanics observing material
  failures during mating of parts
  in factory overseas

Application --- Division Two
But the information is not connected !
Theory --- Division One
Practical Learning --- Division Two Partner
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Groups are widely distributed
Systems
Door Fabrication
3-Day Final Assembly
Wing Center Section build
Tail section
Partners create key knowledge
Materials
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Aggregation The Goal

• You want to bring information together
• Promote sharing
• Put local information in context of many other
  sources
• Find similar information in one place
• Increase awareness
• Promote discovery and reuse
• Avoid repeating errors

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What are the barriers?

• Lack of awareness of other groups
• Lack of time to engage (lack of opportunities to
  engage)
• Lack of trust
• Information protection (access controls) managed
  locally.
• Vocabulary of different products locales
• Language barriers
• Geographic separation
• Not using the same repository systems and ....

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Types of approaches

• Knowledge sharing forums (conferences, symposia,
  poster sessions)
• Collaboration environments
• Communities of Practice
• Facilitated social networks
• Publication Discovery systems

Publication gt Process
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Publication

• Basically this is the act of elevating select
  information from a local to (more) global context
• It relies on having a defined process that
  satisfies certain requirements (e.g. regulations)
  and ensures quality
• A vehicle for systematic awareness across
  disparate groups
• Provides a basis for meaningful information
  aggregation

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Publication aggregates many sources
Engineering
Research
Product Teams
Materials
Manufacturing
Computing
Marketing
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Publication Process

• ...You want to liberate knowledge from its
  point of creation, but without violating
  contracts, regulations, or good business
  sense....

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Typical publication concerns

• Information protection
• Export control
• Intellectual property
• Ownership
• Author or contact information
• Content quality (relates to the multiple
  dimensions of value up to date, relevant, well
  written,...)
• Publication format

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Establish Publication Audience
Regulation
Legal
Assign Access
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Assign keywords and format
Text Analysis
Thesaurus
We call it end rib.
Tag rib post
Convert to HTML
.ppt
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Publishing requires process
Inventory Selection
Export Compliance IP Review
Identify Content
Policy
Procedure
Determine Access
Periodic Review Audit
Publication Process

• Ownership
• Correct markings
• Audience
• Review and audit

Regulation
Publish to Select groups
Owner Review Approval
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Metadata

• Author
• Owner
• Refresh date
• Keywords
• ....

The mantra for metadata should be Choose the
minimum essential items.
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Thesaurus Thevalue of common vocabulary
ignition
lift
thrust
Turbojet engines
Pneumatic equipment
starting
Propulsion systems
engines
Engine starters
Jet engines
Flame propagation
Ramjet engines
Hydrogen fuels
flameout
Flame stability
combustion
afterburning
Combustion stability
Burning rate
spray
Jet spray
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Format conversion niceties

• Content originates in many different forms
• Common format improves overall usability
• Increased understandability
• Easier to compare items from disparate sources
• Helps with branding
• Both for publication system and for individual
  local sources

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Publication (computing) system

• Physical location proven, low-tech...but not
  everyone is in the same location
• Central repository information is online,
  searchable, accessible...but not every business
  unit has the same repository tools
• Data warehouse uses resources in their original
  form but maps them into a common schema and
  creates a virtual repository.
• Distributed collection of links leaves content
  resources where they are, but creates a common
  catalog with acccessor functions

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What does it look like?

• It provides overarching security and at least
  document level controls
• It provides metadata management mapping
  services
• Users can search the collections based on full
  text and metadata
• Users discover related items from multiple
  different sources.
• Uniform accessor functions to retrieve items from
  heterogeneous repositories

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Publication system
Security
Search
Metadata management
Taxonomy
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Postscript Technologies

• Portals
• Content Management Systems
• Semantic web technologies RDF, OWL, XML,
  Ontologies, KB inference, Info Integration
  methods, Text mining, ...
• Text Analysis, Data Mining,
• Library Thesaurus / Taxonomy
• Vignette, Goldfire, Askme, Workflow engines,
  email, Entopia, IM, Sharepoint, Lotus Notes,
  Custom apps
• ...and the Architecture (e.g. security services)

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Questions?
Comparisons
Comments
Examples