The Navy Knowledge Portal, and IM

[webmaster]

An interesting endeavor by the Navy, FYI.

https://wwwa.nko.navy.mil/portal/index.jhtml

SUBJ/NAVY KNOWLEDGE ONLINE (NKO)//
POC/KANTNER J/CAPT/NPDC/LOC:NORFOLK VA/TEL:757-444-2996 EXT3086
/EMAIL:JAMES.KANTNER@CNET.NAVY.MIL//

RMKS/1. NAVY KNOWLEDGE ONLINE (NKO) IS THE NAVAL EDUCATION AND
TRAINING COMMAND'S (NETC) INTEGRATED DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR LIFELONG
LEARNING INITIATIVES, PERSONNEL DEVELOPMENT AND KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT. ALTHOUGH INITIALLY FOCUSED ON THE NAVAL PERSONNEL
DEVELOPMENT COMMAND (NPDC) AND THE VARIOUS LEARNING CENTERS, NKO
WILL EVENTUALLY SUPPORT THE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF ALL NAVY
PERSONNEL. EFFECTIVE 24 JANUARY 2003, ACCESS TO NKO WILL BE
AVAILABLE TO ALL ACTIVE DUTY, RESERVE, AND RETIRED SAILORS AND
MARINES, AS WELL AS ALL NAVY DEPARTMENT CIVILIAN PERSONNEL. IN
ADDITION, NKO IS SCHEDULED TO BE AVAILABLE TO ACTIVE DUTY DEPENDENTS
(NAVY AND MARINE CORPS) WITHIN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS, AND A SIPRNET
AND SHIPBOARD VERSION ARE IN DEVELOPMENT. NKO CAN CURRENTLY BE
ACCESSED DIRECTLY ON THE WEB AND PLANNING IS UNDERWAY TO ENABLE
ACCESS VIA THE NAVY ENTERPRISE PORTAL (NEP) IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

2. NEW NKO USERS SHOULD LOG ON BY GOING TO <HTTPDOUBLE
SLASH)WWW.NKO.NAVY.MIL> AND CLICKING ON THE "I'M A NEW USER" BUTTON.
FROM THERE, EASY TO FOLLOW DIRECTIONS WILL STEP THE NEW USER THROUGH
THE REGISTRATION PROCESS. UPON COMPLETION OF REGISTRATION, THE NEW
NKO USER COMPLETES A PROFILE FORM AND SELECTS ONE OF NPDC'S LEARNING
CENTERS (BASED ON THE FAMILY OF RATINGS TO WHICH THE SAILOR BELONGS)
AS HIS OR HER CENTER. USERS CAN LEARN MORE ABOUT NKO'S
FUNCTIONALITIES AND CAPABILITIES BY CLICKING ON THE "NKO PRIMER"
LINK ON THE HOMEPAGE. MORE DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS AND TUTORIALS CAN
BE FOUND IN THE NKO USER GUIDE, ACCESSIBLE VIA THE USER GUIDE BUTTON
ON THE TOP RIGHT PORTION OF THE HOMEPAGE.

3. NKO IS A DYNAMIC, BROAD-BASED DELIVERY SYSTEM FOR MANY OF THE
LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES CREATED BY THE REVOLUTION IN
TRAINING. FURTHERMORE, NKO SUPPORTS THE PRINCIPLE OF A LIFELONG
LEARNING CONTINUUM FOR ALL, WHETHER AT WORK, ON THE ROAD OR AT HOME.
NKO PROVIDES THE MEANS TO:
A. CONNECT SAILORS WITH THE INFORMATION, EXPERTISE AND
LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES REQUIRED TO SUPPORT THEIR PROFESSIONAL AND
PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT.
B. ENGAGE IN REAL-TIME AND ASYNCHRONOUS COLLABORATION WITH
PEERS, MENTORS AND SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS AROUND THE WORLD.
C. TRACK INDIVIDUAL TRAINING REQUIREMENTS AND THE PROGRESS OF
EACH SAILOR IAW THEIR FIVE-VECTOR MODEL.

4. NKO WILL INITIALLY SUPPORT THE MISSION OF THE LEARNING CENTERS.
THESE CENTERS HAVE BEEN CHARTERED TO PROVIDE LIFELONG SUPPORT TO
GROUPS OF RATINGS WITH SIMILAR SKILLS AND TRAINING REQUIREMENTS.
FOR EXAMPLE, THE CENTER FOR NAVAL ENGINEERING SUPPORTS TRAINING AND
DEVELOPMENT FOR ALL NON-NUCLEAR MM, EM, EN, GS, IC, HT, MR, AND DC
RATINGS, AS WELL AS ASSOCIATED OFFICER TRAINING. IN ADDITION TO THE
RATING-ALIGNED LEARNING CENTERS, TWO SEPARATE LEARNING CENTERS WERE
CHARTERED TO SUPPORT NAVAL LEADERSHIP AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR
ALL. NKO HAS BEEN DESIGNED TO ALLOW EACH CENTER THE CAPABILITY TO
PROVIDE ITS SAILORS A DYNAMIC, INTERACTIVE, AND COLLABORATIVE
RESOURCE BY ENABLING ACCESS TO A WEALTH OF INFORMATION, INCLUDING
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS, FLEET BEST PRACTICES, AND SUBJECT MATTER
EXPERTISE FOR ASSOCIATED NAVY RATINGS AND LEADERSHIP ROLES. ACTUAL
CONTENT FOR EACH LEARNING CENTER IS DESIGNED FOR USERS BASED ON
THEIR UNIQUE NEEDS. SPECIFICALLY, CENTERS WILL FOCUS DIRECTED
INFORMATION AT USER GROUPS TO ENSURE DESIGNATED PERSONNEL RECEIVE
PERTINENT AND LATE-BREAKING NEWS AFFECTING THEIR RATING, NEC,
PLATFORM, LEADERSHIP, AND OTHER INTEREST AREAS. EQUALLY IMPORTANT,
NKO WILL PROVIDE A MEANS FOR SAILORS TO SHARE THEIR KNOWLEDGE WITH
EACH OTHER (IN NEAR REAL TIME), IMPACT VARIOUS TRAINING CURRICULA
THROUGH DIRECT FEEDBACK TO THE NAVY'S TRAINING COMMUNITIES, AND
ORGANIZE THEMSELVES INTO ONLINE COMMUNITIES WITH COMMON PROFESSIONAL
INTERESTS. THESE ACTIVITIES WILL COLLECTIVELY SUPPORT THE GROWTH
AND DEVELOPMENT OF OUR SAILORS, AND HAVE A DIRECT AND POSITIVE
IMPACT ON OPERATIONAL READINESS, QUALITY OF SERVICE, AND INDIVIDUAL
SAILOR JOB SATISFACTION.

5. CURRENTLY UNDER DEVELOPMENT, THE FIVE-VECTOR MODEL IS A
PERSONALIZED CAREER ROAD MAP FOR EACH SAILOR AND WILL BE AVAILABLE
ON THE NKO HOMEPAGE (FOR ALL RATES) BY THE MID 2003 TIME FRAME. THE
FIVE-VECTOR MODEL WILL PROVIDE SAILORS WITH REAL-TIME ASSESSMENTS OF
THEIR PROGRESS ALONG EACH VECTOR (PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, PERSONAL
DEVELOPMENT, LEADERSHIP, CERTIFICATIONS AND QUALIFICATIONS, AND
PERFORMANCE), EXPERT ADVICE ON PROFESSIONAL GROWTH AND UPWARD
MOBILITY, AND DIRECT ACCESS TO COURSES, CAREER INFORMATION, AND
OTHER DATA TO ENSURE CAREER PROGRESS. THIS MODEL CONTAINS ALL
RELEVANT AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION ORGANIZED BY RATING, KNOWLEDGE,
SKILLS, AND ABILITIES, AND SERVES AS THE CORE KNOWLEDGE INTEGRATION
AND DISSEMINATION CHANNEL FOR SAILORS THROUGHOUT THEIR CAREERS.

6. COMBINING UNIQUE PERSONALIZATION, ROBUST SEARCH, AND
COLLABORATIVE TOOLS IN A DYNAMICALLY INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENT, NKO IS
ESSENTIAL TO DELIVERING THE FULL BENEFIT OF THE REVOLUTION IN
TRAINING. ALTHOUGH CLEARLY NOT A FINISHED PRODUCT, NKO IS A REALITY
AND IMPROVING EVERY DAY. LEARNING CENTER STAFF PERSONNEL ARE
WORKING HARD TO POPULATE THE PORTAL WITH A COMPREHENSIVE PACKAGE OF
USEFUL INFORMATION TO SUPPORT THE PERFORMANCE, GROWTH AND
DEVELOPMENT OF ALL SHIPMATES. ALL HANDS SHOULD LOG ON TO NKO AND
BEGIN EXPLORING ITS MANY CAPABILITIES. WE LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR
FEEDBACK IN THE COMING WEEKS/MONTHS AS WE CONTINUE TO BUILD THIS
IMPORTANT LEARNING AND SUPPORT TOOL.

U.S. Navy rides the IM wave

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-983673.html

By Lisa M. Bowman
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
February 6, 2003, 12:04 PM PT


The U.S. Navy is catching the instant messaging craze.
The organization last week rolled out its new Navy Knowledge Online (NKO) portal, where active duty, reserve and retired personnel can gather online for training, learning and connecting with experts in their field. A major part of the portal is the instant messaging feature, said Lt. Eric Morris, NKO program manager.

Morris said sailors are exchanging about 10,000 instant messages per day, and the pace is increasing. "It's caught on like wildfire," he said.

Naval officers are hoping the system will help them train personnel, recruit new people, and help sailors at sea better communicate, especially as the situation continues to heat up in the Middle East.

Right now, the information that travels across the system is unclassified, but the Navy plans to launch a classified version in 45 to 60 days. The organization hopes to ensure security by running the technology on its own internal secure system and by allowing local commanders to turn access to the system on and off depending on the situation.

Morris said he's used a version of chat before for tactical operations while aboard a ship out at sea. He said that in the future, officers may use IM to communicate in the field. "It's conceivable that the classified version will be used to talk about what they're doing," he said.

Organizations large and small are increasingly on the radar screens of instant messaging companies. As many as 84 percent of all organizations use some sort of instant messenger application, according to a report issued last year by Osterman Research of Black Diamond, Wash., although much of it is for unofficial use. Hoping to cash in on the trend, Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN, and America Online have released corporate instant messaging products. Both the Navy and the Army use a system created by Bantu.

Morris said he recently engaged in an extended IM session with a young man who's part of the Navy's potential enlistee program. The man contacted him just 12 hours after he gained access to the portal to ask questions about Navy career paths and how he could eventually become an officer.

Morris said he was astounded that the 18-year-old, who wasn't even yet an enlistee, managed to easily track down someone with 20 years of Navy experience and pepper him with questions. "He didn't know me from Adam, but he found me," Morris said. "We'd have never been able to that without IM."

Right now much of the system is being used by personnel who are on land or on docked ships, but the Navy is experimenting with a ship-to-shore version and trying to work out bandwidth issues. Some ships have already released such a system.

"The bandwidth needed to make a telephone call from ship to shore is many, many times greater than it is to exchange an IM," Morris said.

U.S. NAVY DEPLOYS BANTU SOLUTION ENTERPRISE-WIDE VIA THE NAVY KNOWLEDGE ONLINE PORTAL (NKO)

http://corp.bantu.com/releases/2003.02.03.navyexpansion.asp

Bantu enables secure, real-time collaboration throughout the Navy

Washington, D.C., February 3, 2003 Bantu, Inc., the leading provider of secure enterprise instant messaging (IM) and presence solutions, today announced the U.S. Navy has made Bantu's solution available to all Navy personnel via the NKO enterprise-wide rollout. Bantu's platform enables Active Duty, Reserve, Retired Sailors and Marines, as well as all Navy Department civilian personnel, to collaborate in real-time in a secure environment.

"The NKO is key to achieving our vision of a more responsive, more agile Navy, and instant messaging is critical to the NKO's success," said Lt. Eric Morris, the NKO project manager. "The real-time knowledge transfer it enables will help us revolutionize the way we train and empower sailors. By fostering secure, instant collaboration, NKO is going to give sailors a valuable tool that will have a direct impact on operational readiness."

The Bantu platform in the NKO is the same software the U.S. Army relies on for its Army Knowledge Online Portal. Now Navy personnel can use it to engage in dynamic, real-time collaboration with peers, mentors and subject matter experts around the world. Bantu makes it easier for them to work with and learn from each other, and share critical knowledge. Bantu integrates IM (real-time text communication) and presence (the ability to see who's online) seamlessly into the NKO and into any other application that users may access via the portal, including the personnel directory, document sharing, etc.

Bantu was selected last August by the Navy and Appian, the Navy's prime contractor and a leading provider of enterprise web applications, as the NKO's enterprise instant messaging platform. Since then, Bantu has worked closely with Appian and the Naval Education and Training Command to design and quickly implement IM and presence into the NKO—the Navy's integrated delivery system for lifelong learning initiatives, personnel development and knowledge management. With more than 30,000 registered users, the NKO will eventually be used by all Navy personnel and will also be accessible by their dependents.

"The Navy, like our growing list of other defense and government customers, identified IM and presence as critically important tools for helping transform and expedite the way personnel work together and exchange vital information," said Larry Schlang, president and CEO of Bantu. "The Navy's decision to deploy Bantu Navy-wide reflects the important role that it has in enhancing the NKO and improving its sailors' operational productivity."