ge
Defense Contract Management Agency
Long Island
Mid-Atlantic Sector
605 Stewart Avenue
Garden City, NY 11530
516 228 5000



Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 12:01:48 -0400

03 00050 60 02091201




Mr. Rod Welch
rodwelch@pacbell.net
The Welch Company
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111 2496
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Subject:   Transformation from IT to Culture of Knowledge

Dear Rod,

I've had a chance to review the eight paragraphs in PLAN, ORGANIZE, INTEGRATE, MEASURE (POIMS) beginning with...
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http://www.welchco.com/03/00050/01/09/01/02/00030.HTM#8536
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"The complexity of knowledge," and ending with "the price people pay for failing to pay the cost of good management."

http://www.welchco.com/03/00050/01/09/01/02/00030.HTM#CZ8O.
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Looking beyond immediate events has become a hallmark of leadership. Knowing how to identify relevant experience from personal and organizational memory is a skill that unfortunately is hard won through experience. We have talked about how SDS can help in this. Others, such as Factiva

http://www.factiva.com/infopro/
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...and Inxight,

http://www.inxight.com/
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...claim the ability to semi-automatically catalog the content of a news piece, and by setting up a taxonomy called Factiva Intelligent IndexingTM,

http://www.factiva.com/content/intindexing.asp?node=content-link1
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....can make the relevant information available "as quickly as possible." See their white paper at...

http://www.factiva.com/infopro/indexingwhitepaper.pdf.
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Your application of "purple links" (plinks) to each paragraph in SDS aids in ready reference and is unique and novel. I would be interested in see how SDS could be applied to this task.
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Your interpretation

http://www.welchco.com/03/00050/01/09/01/02/00030.HTM#PG9M

...of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)

http://farsite.hill.af.mil/vffara.htm
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...as requiring "organizational memory an alignment of the work with objective, requirements and commitments," boils down to "clear requirements and adherence to contract."
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As you correctly state,

http://www.welchco.com/sd/08/00101/02/02/05/04/095827.HTM#IW3W,
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...the FAR does not define "knowledge" so a clarification is needed to assist government planners on how to manage knowledge differently from information. Organizational memory is not mentioned in the FAR, although one could expand the definition of organizational memory to place it in the context of consistent work procedures and business practices.
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I appreciate your interest in applying promising technology to the Department of Defense's (DoD's) acquisition practices and policies. I must reiterate that my duties as a Field Support Representative...

http://home.dcmde.dcma.mil/oc/ocf/
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...for the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA)

http://www.dcma.mil/
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...in no way allows me to change the FAR, alter Agency policy, or authorize contracts with vendors.

Very respectfully



Stuart Harrow
Manufacturing & Production Field Service Representative
sharrow@dcmde.dcma.mil
Contract Operations



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Copy to:
  1. Johnson, Garold (Gary) L." ,
  2. Joslyn, Cliff, joslyn@lanl.gov
  3. Lincoln, Patrick, Lincoln@csl.sri.com
  4. Munnecke, Tom, munnecket@saic.com
  5. Nerlove, Sara B., snerlove@nsf.gov
  6. Nord, Jerry, Jerry_Nord@csgsystems.com
  7. Snowden, Dave, SNOWDED@uk.ibm.com