Overview

Francesco A. Calabrese, D.Sc.

In the fall and winter of 1998/1999, the label and concepts surrounding the discipline of knowledge management (KM) had not yet registered as doctoral dissertation material in American universities. In fact, there was no clear indication that postgraduate programs in the discipline had been accredited in this country. There was a report that one university in the United Kingdom did offer an accredited graduate degree in the subject, but that had little impact on those of us striving to earn doctoral degrees at the George Washington University s (GW) School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). But, then a visionary emerged in the person of Dr. Michael A. Stankosky, associate professor for systems engineering in the Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering (EMSE). Dr. Stankosky assembled, defended, and acquired accreditation approval for graduate studies at the certificate, master s, and doctoral degree levels in KM the first such program in the United States. He then set about recruiting some of EMSE s doctoral candidates to undertake directed research and ultimately to complete and publish their dissertation research findings in the field of KM.

So it happened that on a crisp winter Saturday morning early in 1999, I found myself in a working session with Dr. Michael A. Stankosky, Dr. Arthur J. Murray, and Dr. Geoffrey P. Malafasky. I was a student in Dr. Murray s pilot course in KM at the time, completing my doctoral course work and casting about for a dissertation focus in systems or software engineering.