Anticipating Policy Implications of Emerging Information Technologies

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Rouse, William B. | Acevedo, Remy

Affiliations: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA | Systems & Technologies Directorate, US Air Force Chief Information Officer, The Pentagon, Washington, DC 20330-1155, USA

Abstract: This article reports on a U.S. Air Force initiative concerned with anticipating the policy implications of emerging information technologies. This initiative is also a knowledge management initiative where the targeted knowledge concerns emerging information technology. The confluence of these two purposes motivated the name TecKnowlegy (TK). This article summarizes the TK initiative, including background reasons for undertaking this initiative. An overall TK methodology is explained in terms of process, content, people and infrastructure. An Assessment Framework is presented that enables mapping from desired Air Force effects to capabilities to systems to functions to technologies to policies. Use of the methodology and Assessment Framework is illustrated using two case studies – one a retrospective study of the Joint Battlespace Infosphere and the other a study of collaboration technologies.

Journal: Information Knowledge Systems Management, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 77-93, 2004