Ed from the Defense Language Institute is giving a case study on knowledge management. He’s the KM director there. The Institute works with 2000 or so students a year, and they come ready to learn another language. This presentation is about changing the Institute from paper to a complete digital environment.

Some of the Challenges
– tremendous diversity of faculty; teach 65 different languages. Huge range of ages.
– most students are 18-22 years old.
– the Institute is both a military place and an academic place.
– “techno-cultural transition”

Stages of the Transition
– starting place … dispersed centers of excellence of different technologies (that they became great in by fiddling around), various degrees of technology adoption, ad hoc and conditional collaboration, and solution shopping vs. needs analysis.
– current state … communication is much improved, collaboration and standardization is increasing, eager adoption of developments, and acceptance of requirements definition.
– desired future state … a fully collaborative work environment, established and approved processes, sensible programs, high quality of service, continuous improvement as a value.

Lessons, Tools and Hopes
– lessons … start at the beginning, codify terminology, communicate, document, be flexible, be patient, and be persistent
– tools … collaboration, standardization, centralization and consolidation, and competency / skill / knowledge
– technology tools … SmartBoards, wireless, Tablet PCs, iPods, SharePoint, Blackboard, and much more.
– hopes for the future … convergence of knowledge and practice, and a philosophy of one:many