Helping Government Learn (Knowledge Capture) Part 2

In the 1990s, the concept of knowledge capture and management was the rage. The issue with institutions, government,nonprofit, or for-profit, has to do not just with capturing knowledge, but using it to bring about necessary changes.

So, today's Post gives us three lessons for knowledge capture for helping both DC and the Federal Government to learn:

1. If a tow truck does a "courtesy tow" for streetcleaning, don't park the car in a metered space. (See "You Can Fight City Hall. You Can Even Make It Apologize.") In other words, the event described in Marc Fisher's column should never happen to begin with.

2. Ask key questions about throughput and set up adequate systems to bring it about for Inauguration activities. Do this early in the planning phase. See "Report Cites Planning, Crowd Size in Ticket Mess " from the Post. It sounds like the review panel hasn't quite learned the right lessons. "Monitor twitter..." Sounds lame.

3. In the letter to the editor, "Marathon Nightmare on Capitol Hill," Geoffrey Lane makes a good point, that "marshals" and police officers posted to the routes ought to be provided with information about which streets _are not closed_, so that people "stuck" can get out.

(I do have to say that I was impressed this year that on the Marathon route, notice was posted on signs affixed to street signs and other standards, and information was passed out house to house. I have photos but they aren't uploaded yet.)

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I don't feel any of these pieces have described situations where the government has fully learned, where planning and implementation processes have been changed to limit, if not eliminate, these problems from occurring again.