* * * * * * * * *

"Knowledge management starts from a simple premise: The critical resource that determines competitive advantage in today's economy is knowledge. Consequently, the same kinds of tools and strategies that companies once devoted to optimizing the use of natural resources, capital and labor in the old industrial economy now must be applied to maximizing the productivity of their knowledge assets. Knowledge management refers to the collection of management practices and associated technologies." This article traces KM in the early 1990s focused on organizational effectiveness to the enlarged KM playing field of knowledge outside the organization and a change in corporate culture of conducting business `at the speed of thought'." MUST READ

Silver, Bruce. "The Face of Knowledge Management: A Status Report." KMWorld. 10(1), 14-15. 

Subscribe at http://www.kmworld.com

Also, access http://www.brsilver.com/
 

An extensive series of advances by major players focused on the above-mentioned topic.

"IBM has announced a new technology called superior wireless applications (SWAP), which will enable mobile business executives to access custom applications on the server by pointing and tapping on their wireless handheld devices. As Tim Dougherty, director of e-business marketing at IBM, explains, IBM is bridging the convenience of wireless handhelds, which are primarily used as personal assistants, with the business world."  Becky Swissler

"Field Report." Field Force Automation, February 2001, 10-20.

http://www.ffamag.com/

"The various components involved in managing, coordinating and controlling a service workforce have been around for some time, including, obviously, the ability to communicate to and from the mobile workers via voice and data. Unfortunately, for most users attempting to implement an integrated system on a seamless basis, the problem has been to pick and choose the right components or modules from a broad selection of field service management system software, hardware, laptops, PDAs and wireless communications networks. Fortunately, e-commerce has come to the rescue with a new range of vendors offering fully integrated mobile workforce management solutions covering call management (including call avoidance and diagnostics), contract management and dispatch assignment and scheduling."

 Blumberg, Donald F. "Optimizing Mobile Workforces." Field Force Automation.      February 2001, 24-25.

 http://www.ffamag.com
 

"Government agencies are finding that knowledge management technologies are essential in staying in touch with the citizens they serve, and with one another. An increasing number of people use the Web to conduct routine business, and expect government services to be available online. They want to perform such tasks as renewing a business permit or requesting a copy ...."

"Internal communication is one of the emerging areas in government applications," says Mark Youman, principal, American Management Systems

http://www.ams.com/

"Government agencies are doing more complex business-to-business applications. We're seeing a lot of knowledge flow issues being addressed."

"With the Federal Highway Administration

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/

acting as a knowledge broker, state highway agencies are becoming more efficient by learning from one another" says Youman. "AMS is one of the technologies the FHWA is using to enable data sharing among state representatives and experts in the field."

Zimmerman, Kim Ann. "Agencies Queue Up For KM: Citizens Grain Ready Access to Info, Dodge Red Tape." KMWorld. 10(2), February 2001, 20-21. 

http://www.kmworld.com/
 

"Americans, rumor has it, spend a total of 500 million hours a week in their cars. That's an awful lot of time in limbo. Or is it? Goldman Sacs reports that drivers are trying to turn these hours into productive time, with about 50 percent of cell phone use now occurring in cars and about 80 percent of all cell calls initiated in cars. The next step, of course, is bringing wireless connectivity right onto the dashboard."  An excellent article about use of wireless technology.

Slaton, Joyce. "Information Hits The Road." Mbusiness: Voice of the Mobile Economy,

February 2001, 76-85. 

http://www.mbizcentral.com/
 

"Microsoft first introduced its vision for Information at Your Fingertips (IAYF) at the 1990
Comdex convention. The simple but lofty vision is based on five principles:
One: Access of .... 
Two: Information should be ....
Three: The PC should be .... 
Four: Data should have ....
And five: IYAF calls for `high technology and...'."

"The principals of the IAYF vision haven't changed over the last 10 years, but the technology embodying them has. This technology, which ...."

Schnoll, Scott. "Design Next Generation Digital Dashboards." Exchange & Outlook. 2(6),
December 2000/January 2001, 34-43. Subscribe at

http://exchange.devx.com/
 

"Many applications providers and telecommunications companies are developing new ways to use voice enabled technology. A simple, spoken command by the user may become the way to place a call, check stock quotes or order an airline ticket. In some cases, parts of these processes are already voice enabled." An outstanding article with many leads to resources of value.

 Malone, Bridget. "Voice-Activated EC Technology Begins to Sound Off." Electronic Commerce
World, 11(1), January 2001, 26-29.

http://www.ecomworld.com/
 

"By just about every measure, the American Express Blue card - the first smart card ever rolled out across the United States - is a smashing success. Card numbers are at least double what AmEx reportedly had expected, just about all the cards have been activated and card holders are carrying a combined $7 billion in balances, according to one study."

The article discusses activities in Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Spain, South Korea,   France, etc.

Balaban, Dan. "The New Banking Smart Card." CARD TECHNOLOGY, December 2000, 4049.

http://www.cardtechnology.com/
 

What applications of knowledge management (KM) are appropriate for the context of work? What consumer-centric KM strategies would you recommend using in your workplace? What employee KM strategies are essential to improve education and training?
What KM strategies could be used to improve Critical Thinking Competencies?
What KM strategies could be used to improve Problem Solving Skills? 
How would you create a strategic plan to roll out a KM strategy in your workplace?
What set of Directed Study (DS) projects would lead to high quality practicums to understand how KM concepts could be integrated into your context or into sectors of an area's economy?
 

Human Resources Development (HRD) and Organizational Development (OD) in traditional education all too often in the past have not been integrated within a college, school, or university and have often not been synchronized with workforce needs. Graduate programs in the past have too often not used incontrovertible and irrefutable conclusions reached by research faculty and sometimes not even integrated into curriculum delivered by teaching faculty and service providers. For example, there is irrefutable evidence about the value of collaborative learning. But, to what extent is that HRD learning technique promoted within an enterprise OD strategy? Figure 1 is a display of how eight professionals at Mercer County Community College (NJ) completed a "Plan To Plan" document agreed to by three unions to begin strategic planning in 1991 (ED 372 239). How could collaborative learning be used for community, economic and education development?

Globally competitive community research matured rapidly during the 1990s. An excellent report was produced by Partners for Livable Communities. Research sometimes has a focus on a specific region such as the Greater Philadelphia Area and on a sector of the economy such as health care. Knowledge Management (KM) also matured during the 1990s. The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) has been a leader in analysis of KM

http://www.astd.org/

Chambers of commerce throughout the world provide services to members that focus on all three of the above-mentioned activities. How could collaborative learning be used to raise awareness and understanding, perhaps prepare a critical mass of intellectual capital for a region to become and remain one of the five to ten top world centers in health care and possibly pharmaceuticals?

Could Directed Study (DS) projects focus on analysis of research about (a) globally competitive communities, (b) awareness about how KM is being applied in economy sectors, (c) activities of chambers of commerce at multiple levels and various areas of a regional economy, (d) the "Link to Learn" (121) and "The Digital School District"

http://www.121.org/digitalsd/

programs in Pennsylvania and a number of other topics? How could a Montgomery County Community College employee analyze emerging Chief Information Officer (CIO) roles in the 23 school districts as a first DS and compare similar results with peers who did similar projects in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and other counties? How could professionals in multiple programs collaborate in analysis of descriptions of emerging occupations, like in Health Informatics (HI), and co-create developmentally appropriate learning units at various levels of education in an articulated career path in an "on-ground" format that could be converted to an online format with contemporary HI competencies and skills?

Mention has been made often about critical shortages in Information Technology (IT) careers that include B2B, B2C, M-Commerce, HI, CIO, and KM roles. There are also critical shortages in computer, electronic, and mechanical engineers as well as technicians in these three career areas. Allegheny County Community College (PA) had an EET programs at all four campuses that were reduced to one. Pearley Cunningham's dissertation was about how to deliver EET courses online to the other campuses and to deliver developmentally appropriate learning units to area schools. Lehigh University (PA) is delivering engineering courses to schools for students it has accepted. What roles can Chief Information Officers (CIOs), especially in the Lehigh Valley, and KMs play in helping to continuously improve an already nationally recognized set of engineering programs? As you read the pages that follow, consider the needs of personnel who design, develop the tools to manufacture, deal with the logistics for distribution, and then to service the machines.

"In a perfect world, all new e-business applications or site revisions would be completely
developed then thoroughly tested in an environment that was an exact duplicate of ...."

Buccino, Alex. "The Struggle for E-Quality." Intelligent. 4(1), February 16, 2001, 40-54.

http://www.intelligententerprise.com/
 

"When the widely known brands of Nabisco Inc. began their push into business-to-business and business-to-consumer electronic commerce two years ago, the company's executives ...."

 Burgert, Philip. "Branding Power In E-Commerce." Electronic Commerce World, 11(1),
January 2001, 44-45. 

http://www.ecomworld.com/

"We envision ... complete customer control over freight movements within our system."
 A quote by Patrick Brady, Consolidated Freightways, in  Burgert Philip. "Taking Transportation And Logistics to the Net." Electronic Commerce
World. 11(1), January 2001, 48. 

http://www.ecomworld.com/
 

"Online travel services are beginning to take flight on wireless platforms such as Internet enabled mobile phones and handheld devices. Offering clarity and convenience, online travel agencies are profiting from an estimated $10.6 billion in sales in 2001, according to PhoCusWright ...."

Baran, Suzanne. "Booking On The Fly." Internet World, February 1, 2000, 61-63.

http://www.internetworld.com/
 

"You're a school teacher in 2005. You start the day by taking attendance on your hand-held wireless device. The attendance information beams directly to the school's ...."

 Fleischman, John. "New-Edge Products and Services." Converge, 4(l), January 2001, 34-6.

http://www.convergemag.com/
 

"Despite the uncertainties of the economy, IT executives are generally optimistic about the ...."

McGee, Marianne Kolbasuk. "Outlook for 2001." INFORMATIONWEEK, Issue 819,

January 8, 2001, 43-61. 

http://www.informationweek.com/
 

"The cost of connecting to the Internet in Japan remains three times higher than in South Korea."

 Rankin, Ken. "Closing the International Digital Divide." Electronic Commerce World. 11(1),
January 2001, 54. 

http://www.ecomworld.com/
 

A NEW ERA OF SMART CARDS and SMART CARDS IN TAIWAN

"So what's so outlandish about calling ahead to a parking meter to reserve time? Nothing, ...."

And, later in the same issue: "Taiwan has made ambitious smart card plans before. This time there appears to be real momentum in credit cards, health, transit and telecommunications."

Balaban, Dan. "A New Era For Smart Cards." Card Technology, February 2001, 48-56. Tsai, Dennis. "Taiwan Makes Another Run At Smart Cards." Card Technology, February, 2001, 58-61. Taiwan experimented throughout the 1990s.

http://www.cardtechnology.com/
 

Planning for digital dividends has been a continuing theme in the newsletters with additional info available on bulletin board pages. Asia Pacific was the first region discussed beginning in August. The February issue challenged readers to become a member of a "Task Force on Globalization and Planning for Digital Dividends (GPDED)." Charges to the GPDED were (a) analysis of establishments in a "service" area engaged in B2B, B2C, and M-Commerce; (b) analysis of others for collaboration; and (c) creation of a plan for community, economic and education development.

Archived newsletters from December 1999 through the present are available at Blackboard.com. A partial list of topics is on pages 9 and 10. Browsers can link directly to valuable resources. Access

http://www.blackboard.com/courses/webcom/

and follow instructions on page 10. Instruction for accessing bulletin boards on page 10 can link you to hundreds of resources.
 

Directed Study (DS) holds great potential. It is an opportunity to select a topic of interest and collaborate with a facilitator to raise awareness and understanding. Analysis of the literature via DS could help with all aspects of a dissertation or practicum proposal (a) problem statement, (b) review of literature, and (c) methodology and procedures. Awareness about a topic like the many facets of globalization could lead to outstanding practicums and later to an applied dissertation.
English is very often the common language of commerce and diplomacy. How are countries in Asia (Japan, Korea, Taiwan) integrating English, and know-how and technology, into curriculum
Review the project on voice recognition by Jack Espinal 

http://fairfax2.laser.net/~jespinal/vrl.htm

Also, review the DS plan by Curtis Kelly in the December issue of "STRATEGIC PLANNING."

Warren H.Groff, 3408 N. 49th St., Milwaukee, WI 53216-3208, 414-871-1127 http://www.blackboard.com/courses/webcom/coursedocuments/-138583813/dsrtnonline/dsrtnonlineda/groffw@nova.edu

http://www.nova.edu/
 

Wireless Standards, Future Technology, Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce). Midwest Planning -Could Chicago become a leader for the Midwest in wireless technology? Planning for Digital Era Dividends with a specific focus on Africa. E-Learning. Wireless On Campus. Web Service Design and Directed Study by Curtis Kelly. May through October newsletters with some topics. Broadband Visioning. Digital State.
 

Biometric ID. Card technology in various countries. Voice recognition and verification. The Wireless Revolution. Communications in 219' Century Globalization. A Foundation of Understandings for 21st Century Globalization. Competencies for a Digital Dividend. Entrepreneurial Development. Electronic Newsletters. Directed Study on Voice Recognition.

Communications and Electronic Documents to 2010 and 2020. E-Business explosion. E-commerce evolution in graphic arts and printing 
(http://www.podb.com/).
Critical thinking competencies and problem solving skills (ESSENTIAL). Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Knowledge Manager (KM) roles (ESSENTIAL). Sustaining communities of practice. International E-commerce. E-business essentials. The state of online learning. Online learning. SYLLABUS. Executive education. Funding.

September 

E-healthcare to reach $27B by 2004
(http://www.ecomworld.com).
Biometropofis at COMDEX - biometric systems such as face, eye, hand recognition applications.
Building a multilingual Web site
(http://www.webtechniques.com/).

Biometric and card Web sites - link directly to many Web sites 
(http://www.biometrics.org/)
. Electronic Newsletters (ENs) - Online Learning News, Virtual University, EDUCAUSE, + more.
Research Companies - Yankee Group, Gartner Group, Forrester, Meta Group,                 IDC, + more. 
Electronic Commerce - EC World, Regional User Groups, associations, EC Product Center, +++
Middle Schools and High Schools Web sites in South Korea.

The Global Compact by the U.N. on turning the "Digital Divide" into a "Digital Dividend." Asia Pacific, Kimberly Clark, GE Medical Systems and an Internet-based marketplace partnership. Asia Pacific countries list to STRATEGICALLY THINK about Digital Dividend opportunities.
Institute for the Future, Forrester Research, PricewaterhouseCoopers' Technology Center. Advanced Technology Program (ATP)- biometrics, e-books, and much more.
 

Rethinking Community - communication and information technologies are shaping "community." Community goal setting projects and leadership development projects should be synchronized. Globally competitive community research - assess the globally competitive community profile
 

Ananova and Family of Digitized Talking Heads. 
Web Weavers at Roosevelt Elementary School, Wauwatose School District.
Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Knowledge Manager (KM) roles in educational settings. Videoconfercing for Learning Web sites.
About 150 to 175 electronic book publishers, many of whom don't bother with paper books.

Bridging The Gap: Information Technology Skills For a New Millennium, an ITAA report. Educator's Website for Information Technology - includes curriculum standards for states. Advanced Technology Education (ATE) of the National Science Foundation. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) model for 4+4+4 education in online and traditional formats. Milwaukee Public Schools and Washington High School in the Sherman Neighborhood Cluster.

Access http://www.blackboard.com/courses/webcom/
and enter as a guest.

Click on "Announcements" and then on "Course Documents."
Then, click on "Warren Groff s Newsletters." Also, conceptual frameworks for dissertations by Kathy Green and Laurie Nalepa can be analyzed along with Prospectus and then the Proposal.

Then, click on "External Links" and "The Friendly Forum" and browse "The Friendly Forum: Class Discussion." Browse Asia Society, Globalization and the Family of IT Careers, Taiwan, Korea, etc.  Access a few of the links. Consider requesting one the Asia Society Electronic Newsletters. Analyze competencies and skills from some of the "Family of IT Careers" links. Review the educational goals for the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan and then critique "The Pacific Century" (105+) and "Pacific Rim Partnerships" in App. B3 (ED 372 239, 1994).