Army makes major knowledge management, IT regs revision

The Army has issued a new regulation that governs knowledge management and information technology practices. It is the first major revision in nearly four years, and it establishes the basis for the future network-centric force.

The final draft of Army Regulation 25-1 will become effective Jan. 5, 2009.

One of the biggest changes comes in the chapter that spells out information technology support and services. The Army has replaced an earlier regulation that directed organizations to use technologies that move them toward a paper-free business environment with one that stresses using broader network-centric applications.

Adopting such an approach “will provide capabilities to save manpower, reduce redundancy, increase accuracy, speed transmission, increase information availability, and allow functions that would be impractical or impossible without their use,” the new regulation states.

The Army needs to make data visible through metadata discovery systems, methods that make data easier to access and standardized language that makes information understandable by a broad range of users, the regulation states.

The document comes several months after the Army issued a memo on knowledge management that also stressed an approach better suited to a network-centric battlefield in which joint forces operations predominate.

The memo outlined 12 principles for shifting the focus away from specific IT requirements and closely guarded information to one that considers information-sharing a necessary warfighting skill.

Other changes include updates to policies on enterprise architecture and information assurance and a policy that seeks to accelerate the use of commercial IT services and software.