Knowledge Management from a government contractor done wrong
Check out this great article on the wrong way to implement Knowledge Management on a government contract. Thanks to J$ who posted this on his blog.
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Check out this great article on the wrong way to implement Knowledge Management on a government contract. Thanks to J$ who posted this on his blog.
Recently I had to debug why I was unable to insert more then 4096 characters of information into a text field of my MSSQL database from a PHP script I was running. After some googling I saw people reference setting the TEXTSIZE attribute. This did not seem to do the trick for me. After some stumbling around I dicivered the problem lies in the php.ini file. You need to set the folllowing variables as shown below.
; Valid range 0 - 2147483647. Default = 4096.
mssql.textlimit = 2147483647
; Valid range 0 - 2147483647. Default = 4096.
mssql.textsize = 2147483647
Bug Fixed
As the BBC is reporting it appears as if Google and NASA have teamed up.
Google, the do no evil company, as a government contractor. While they mention doing work like sensor design and engineering analysis, I see the most potential for what they could bring in the Data Management arena. This could have the potential to revolutionize the way NASA handles their data systems. In the past projects at NASA get funded and awarded to different contractors, who then create the data systems they need to support their projects. The contractor typically does not share any of this data unless it get specifically mentioned in the contract, which isn't that common. As a result one of the biggest weaknesses in NASA's IT systems is the inability to search accross the plentitude of data systems. It is impossible to apply Data Mininng, Trending, and Analysis technologies to this data. In the words of the CAIB Report,
"In its investigation, the Board found that the information systems that support the Shuttle Program are extremely cumbersome and difficult to use in decision making at any level."Perhaps Google is the type of company that can overcome these challenges? It's what the "Good Guys" would do.
Recipe originally from http://www.bassonhook.com/fishforfood/tilapiarecipes.html
4-6 Tilapia fillets
¼ cup plus 1 Tbls. fresh lime juice
1 tsp. olive oil
1 Tbls. unsalted butter
5 Tbls thickly sliced garlic
3 Tbls. all-purpose flour
4 Tbls. chopped fresh cilantro/parsley
salt and freshly ground pepper
Rinse and pat fillets dry. Place in a 2" deep glass or enamel-coated dish. Sprinkle with lime juice. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. In heavy skillet, combine oil and butter and heat over medium heat. Add the garlic and saut» just until lightly browned. Using a slotted spoon remove garlic and set aside. Remove fish (reserve lime juice), pat dry with paper towel. Dust lightly with flour, shaking off excess. Warm the skillet over medium-high heat, frying fish 2 to 3 minutes per side until brown and crisp outside and just done inside. Remove fillets to a warming dish. Reheat garlic, stir in lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper. Heat just until the cilantro begins to wilt. Pour over the fillets and serve. Makes 4 servings
Overall I would consider this a decent recipe. I eyeballed the lime juice and used a little too much causing it to be too citrusy. I combined this with my wilted spinach recipe.
Man, I have been out of date with the latest and greatest of what Microsoft has been doing. Check out this video of Sparkle.
I only had a rough idea of many Microsoft technologies like XAML and Avalon but this video made them much more clear. This was my first time checking out Channel 9(Microsoft’s Developers Blog) and I think I am going to have to check out more. Looks like Flash has some serious catching up to do on this technology. What a slick UI. The down side of this really cool technology is it looks like you need IE7 to run your program as a web distributed app. Looks like you can run a stand alone app on any windows machine with .NET support. But that means you can't target Linux and OSX. I know mono is an attempt to be able to run .NET based stuff on Linux but to be honest I have no idea if apps developed on this are compatible or how mature Mono is. Cross compatibility aside this is some seriously cool technology!
This is an excellent article covering some of the difficulties in dealing with RFPs. Working for a government contracters I have had experience in writing responses to RFPs and agree with most of the points mentioned in the article.
Some official and non-official NASA RSS Feeds include
What is the most effective Knowledge Management System I have received the greatest benefit from?
To quote wikipedia's article on KM
Knowledge Management seeks to make the best use of the knowledge that is available to an organization, creating new knowledge, increasing awareness and understanding in the process.
Based on that definition my answer is Yahoo's Fantasy Football site. Before anybody jumps down my throat suggesting other fantasy sites are better I must admit Yahoo's is the only one I have used, if for no other reason then my friends use this one for their league.
The reason this has been the most effective KM system I have used is it has allowed me to become very knowledgeable in the players, teams, and trends needed to put together a winning FF team. In my league I consider myself one of the least knowledgeable people, but with this website I am able to compete and win not because of luck, but because yahoo efficiently gives you the information and tools needed to make the right choices. This is what KM is all about.
Yahoo's system strikes me as a system designed on the users needs. It has great news, trends, detailed statistics, and expert advice. The real strength however is the way the interface ties in the ability to see this information through a variety of views. If I'm looking at my team I can see that new news on them is available. If I'm looking at the expert's advice I can see it not only for the members of my team but also which of the free agents they consider a strong play. I can look at the trends in what players in other leagues are being dropped and added to more rapidly search for players to pick up.
Bottom line is this is a great KM system, better then many corporate KM's I have scene before. What KM system would you consider the best you have ever used?