A Sample of Knowledge Management Projects at George Washington University

Artificial intelligence (A_r) has been looking for a "killer applieation" since its ineeption. Now, with the world wide web, intranets, intelligent agents, and the emerging knowledge management trends, AI may have found its much needed killer application. Through the use of web-based intelligent agent technology, knowledge management systems ean be developed in very effeetive ways. This paper will highlight several of the knowledge management projects that have been developed in the Sehool of Business and Public Management a George Washington University (GWU) whieh incorporate the use of intelligent agents for making AI integral part of knowledge management. 1.0 An Intelligent-Agent Based Information Warfare Advisor Developed for the US Army War College (USAWC) The capstone, and perhaps most innovative, activity at the US Army College is the "Strategic Crisis Exercise (SCE). The SCE is two week exercise/simulation which serves as the laboratory for applying the students’ knowledge in strategic leadership, military doctrine, policy, and decision making gained over the student’s tenure at the War College. The SCE involves all the War College students (320+) role playing certain organizations, (e.g., State Department, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Treasury, Military Commands, etc.) whereby a myriad of activities occur in which the students need to react and formulate decisions. Typically, over 120 subject matter experts are used throughout the SCE to bring some measure of reality to this exercise. One of the themes that is integrated throughout the SCE is the influence of information warfare (IW). In the SCE, certain civilian and defense-related IW events occur, and the students need to consult the "IW subject matter expert" in order to help resolve some of these issues. To help in this regard, an on-line IW advisor, using intelligent agent technology, was built by George Washington University for USAWC student use during the SCE. Instead of bringing in many experts from around the country to participate in the SCE, the use of intelligent agents for on-line advisors may be a cost-effective and efficient technique for allowing the students to interact, pose questions, and engage in discussions with these "surrogate experts" over the SCE intranet.