Issue TOC Print full article Print this page Download as PDF E-Mail this URL Discuss this article Flame the author     In this article Introduction Career Builder Private Lessons Bigger Plans On Location, Series 4 Vital Stats Army-Navy Game Lt. Eric Morris Capt. Fred S. Bertsch III (ret) Chris Piereman

The Army launched its knowledge portal a few years before the Navy--back in 1997--and for different reasons. It wouldn't be as easy for the Army to start with computer-delivered training, because it has many more soldiers than the Navy has sailors. But its materials change more rapidly to incorporate new artillery, logistics and body-protection technology that can help make ground forces safer and more nimble. So the Army portal focuses more on automating routine tasks for human resources and for materials acquisition and maintenance, according to Lt. Col. Rod Wade, chief of Army Knowledge Online.

Still, the Navy benefited enormously from the Army's leap into knowledge management. The Army chose Appian in 2001, just as the Army secretary was about to issue an order that would swell AKO's user base. Between August and December of that year, registered users soared from 175,000 to 800,000. Wade was certain that the Sun hardware, Sun One LDAP directory, Oracle database and ATG Web server would scale that high, but there was no telling what the Appian layer would do. But once it held up, the Navy would have its proof of concept. Currently, 1.5 million users are enrolled on AKO. The Army is now incorporating the discussion-board templates developed by the Navy. Each will share lessons and code with the other, Morris says.

Between active, retired and reserve soldiers and their families, the National Guard and civilian workers in the Department of the Army, Wade estimates there are as many as 6 million potential users of AKO. Just about all will be on AKO by 2006, he says. The Navy's potential user base, including the Marine Corps, is more than 3 million, Morris says.

The project could ultimately extend to the entire Department of Defense and other government agencies. The Army, Navy and Department of Homeland Security all use Appian software for their portals. And the portals run by the Army, Navy and Air Force already exchange instant messages with one another. They plan to also let users create workspaces that cross military branches.