Washington, DC - The Office of the Judge Advocate General of the Navy hosted the first Joint Legal Knowledge Management (KM) and Information Management (IM) Summit for KM leaders and representatives from the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Office of the General Counsel at the Washington Navy Yard, Aug. 29-Sept. 1.
The four-day summit provided a forum for joint collaboration and sharing of best practices for every service in the Department of Defense as well as hands-on KM training for judge advocates from across the fleet. It also provided a mechanism for key leaders to work together on solutions to major challenges and identify opportunities for ongoing coordination and resource sharing.
"I think this is a great opportunity for us to see what the other services are doing for knowledge management and a big thank you to the Navy for setting this up," said U.S. Air Force Col. Robert Hall.
To kick off the summit, Mr. Shawn O'Rourke, chief knowledge officer, Office of the Judge Advocate General (JAG) of the Navy, explained the summit's origins.
"The Joint Legal KM/IM Summit was born from the recognition that many of the challenges we face and the solutions we are developing are likely shared in some form by all of us," said O'Rourke. "As we have adopted 'Connecting People to People and People to Content' as the tagline for our KM efforts in the Navy JAG community, we see this as an opportunity to extend that spirit by connecting across organizational boundaries."
The first day focused on presentations from each service, providing insight into overall program structure, available resources, activities and initiatives, and barriers or challenges. The second day featured roundtable discussions on the establishment of a Joint Legal KM/IM Council, collaboration and knowledge sharing tools, and the effort to create a Unified Military Justice Data System. Representatives from the Judicial Proceedings Panel and Defense Digital Services joined the discussion and provided critical expertise to these complex challenges. The American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC), an organization that specializes in knowledge management, delivered advanced KM training to knowledge management officers and representatives from commands across the Navy JAG Corps for the last two days of the Summit.
The joint legal services community is comprised of more than 20,000 civilians, enlisted personnel and officers across the Department of Defense and Coast Guard. Through broader collaboration and information sharing, KM leaders within each organization strive to enable their personnel with access to the critical information, expertise and technology they can use to solve complex legal challenges.
Successful knowledge management programs focus equally on people, process and technology. The Navy defines KM as "the integration of people and processes, enabled by technology, to facilitate the exchange of operationally relevant information and expertise to increase organizational performance."
"This event has been a tremendous success that far exceeded our expectations," said O'Rourke. "We owe it to our legal professionals across the services to provide them access to the best information, tools and resources they need to accomplish their mission regardless of where they serve or what uniform they wear. The collaborative engagement this week from everyone involved marks a major step forward in better accomplishing that goal."
