Analysis of needs is still evolving. But initial
discussions suggest the following early information-related requirements:
The requirement to ensure that project participants
have the technical information products and tools they need to get started:
Partner Starting Packages or "Launch packs". These will need
to include a basic document collection; a collection of lessons learned
in related projects; some kind of information search guides; and possibly
some software recommendations
The requirement to establish an accessible
co-ordination framework for project working groups in each country
There will be a growing need at country level
for an information co-ordination function.
The need for a monitoring framework for core
groupings
The key country level project co-ordinators will
need to co-ordinate more or less continuously with Bangkok
The requirement to establish a project identity
and framework for initial networking
Formation of effective groups depends in part
on a common definition of the role of the group and the way its identity
will be projected.
Emerging requirements as the project proceeds
A growing requirement for a delivery and storage
system for technical information to support ongoing analysis and implementation
The scientists and engineers on the project will
need shared access to an existing body of written knowledge. A key requirement
in the provision of technical information is to ensure that the signal-to-noise
ratio of technical information provision is kept manageable, while retaining
the possibility of synergy and new discovery. Hundreds of scientific, technical
and social papers nominally relevant to the project are published every
month. Dozens, if not hundreds of consultancy reports and other "grey
literature" circulate during the same period. It will be essential
to weed out what is actually useful to different users and route to them
in a way that is useful and meaningful
Furthermore, as the project develops in each country,
am increasing amount of material generated during the project activity
will need to be circulated. There will be an additional requirement to
establish systems and tools for "technical information warehousing".
The needs here are to ensure availability, and
access by teams elsewhere, and to ensure that the material persists - that
the archiving function works. This will need to cover the main core stock,
including technical papers, videos, and photographs. It will also need
to include material related to the "Project memory" which detail
why particular choices were made, and what range of day-to-day implementation
problems were encountered. done.
The Need to Establish framework of Networks
and Sub networks
Networking will evolve - but it will be important
to have a simple and easily understood framework within which it can develop.
Developing that framework depends on a detailed understanding of the types
of sub-networks and interest groups which are likely to emerge. The analysis
will need to take into account the definition of the scope of each potential
sub-network; the subject matter (such as building safety, lifelines, GIS
and mapping, landslides, industrial); and the intended members.
Two key tasks will be to identify potential network
facilitators for each sub-network, and to develop a framework for the network:
covering issues such as contents of mailings, bulletin board, the role
of WWW pages, databases, conferences and meetings, and seminars.
There will be a need to gradually develop a portfolio
of Frequently asked Questions (FAQs), Frequently Encountered Problems (FEPS),
a reading guide, bibliographies, and possibly a short primer for each sub-network.
Two other network-like institutions will probably
also be needed: Standards groups, working collaboratively to deal with
technical issues such as GIS metadata (see Annex); and contact groups of
experts acting as a referral resources for the project as a whole.
The Need to build Knowledge bases and collections
of lessons learned This is best illustrated with a quote from a paper
by E. Jeffrey Conklin.
"In order to understand why knowledge is
hard to capture we must first distinguish two kinds of knowledge: formal
and informal. Formal knowledge is the stuff of books, manuals, documents,
and training courses. It is the primary work product of the knowledge worker,
in the form of reports, white papers, plans, spreadsheets, designs, memos,
etc. Knowledge organizations easily and routinely capture formal knowledge;
indeed, they rely on it-without much success-as their organizational memory.
But there is another kind of knowledge as well.
It is the knowledge that is created and used in the "process"
of creating the formal results. If formal knowledge is the foreground,
this knowledge is the background. It includes ideas, facts, assumptions,
meanings, questions, decisions, guesses, stories, and points of view. It
is as important in the work of the knowledge worker as formal knowledge
is, but it is more ephemeral and transitory. This kind of knowledge is
wild; -it is hard to capture and to keep. Let us call this process-oriented
stuff "informal knowledge". The secret to creating shared understanding
is to make informal knowledge explicit. This means capturing key ideas,
facts, assumptions, meanings, questions, decisions, guesses, stories, and
points of view in a clear and succinct language. It means organizing this
informal knowledge so that everyone has access to it. It means changing
the process of knowledge work so that the focus is on creating and managing
a shared display of the group's informal thinking and learning."
Requirement to Develop Tools to Market to New
Users ("Capture" tools)
Reaching decision makers requires tools. These
will need to include project briefings, slide packages (including presentations
designed for video and computers for easy presentation), video programmes
and clips, and displays for use at conferences and meetings of professional
organizations
Requirement to develop Public information and
Marketing Packs
Participation will depend in part on the project's
public visibility. This may be enhanced by media coverage, which will require
material which can be used for TV, radio, and newspaper features.
Need to build the skills and infrastructure
for a technological transition
The speed and scope of information technology
developments means that the information component of the project in three
years will be very different from the present time. This is addressed in
more detail below. It will be vital to build up the information technology
skills and "information literacy" of project participants. Information
literacy encompasses an understanding of which information is most useful,
relevant, and reliable, as well as the ability to analyse, distil, integrate,
compose and classify information to create knowledge. It includes navigational
skill: the ability to move smoothly among arrays of autonomous and globally
interconnected information, contacts, forums and discussion groups in order
to locate and connect to information and expertise from relevant sources.
It also includes distribution skill: frameworks for rethinking methods
of packaging, presenting, providing access and disseminating information
and knowledge in the new technological media.
