Content area
Full Text
Knowledge Management (KM) is an integrated, systematic approach to identifying, managing, and sharing all of an enterprise's information assets, including databases, documents, policies andprocedures, as well as previously unarticulated expertise and experience resident in individual workers Fundamentally, KNI makes the collective information and experience of an enterprise available to the individual knowledge worker, who is responsible for using it wisely and replenishing the stock. This ongoing cycle encourages a learning organization, stimulates collaboration, and empowers people to continually enhance the way they perform work.'
Army Knowledge Online (AKO) is the Army's initiative to implement knowledge management practices and to prepare the institutional Army to support knowledgebased operations. In this article, we provide a broad overview of the components of AKO, discuss one of the key underlying information technologies used by AKO - data warehousing, and introduce a new AKO pilot project to support the Army financial management community
Overview of AKO
"The mission of Army Knowledge Online (AKO) is to institutionalize knowledge management into Army culture and processes to achieve a sustaining momentum that will carry it forward through the Army After Next."2 The overall effort is governed by the AKO Executive Steering Committee, which is co-chaired by the Director of Information Systems for Command, Control, Communications, and Computers (DISC4) and the Director of the Army Staff. The DISC4 Strategic and Advanced Computing Center (SACC) is the material developer. Implementation of AKO is focused both on consolidating existing knowledge management efforts and initiating pilot projects sponsored by functional proponents.
The current components of AKO include the Army Home Page, America's Army Online (A20), the Army Flow Model (AFM), and the Headquarters, Department of the Army (HQDA) Data Sharing Initiative (DSI). The Army Home Page is the Army's Internet face to the public. In contrast, A20 is the Army's intranet, or the infrastructure for information exchange within the Army The AFM is a tool that allows senior leaders to examine the effects of policy decisions across major functional areas over time. It speeds integration efforts across the HQDA staff by providing quick iterations of what the entire Army could look like given proposed policy changes. It integrates requirements to resources by using today's data as a starting point to estimate the future readiness of...