National Academies Press: OpenBook

Implementing Transportation Knowledge Networks (2009)

Chapter: Chapter 4 - Business Plan Summary

« Previous: Chapter 3 - TKN Products and Strategies
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 4 - Business Plan Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2009. Implementing Transportation Knowledge Networks. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14329.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 4 - Business Plan Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2009. Implementing Transportation Knowledge Networks. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14329.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 4 - Business Plan Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2009. Implementing Transportation Knowledge Networks. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14329.
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Suggested Citation:"Chapter 4 - Business Plan Summary." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2009. Implementing Transportation Knowledge Networks. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/14329.
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Page 20

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17 Overview The business plan for implementing Transportation Know- ledge Networks (TKNs) includes an executive summary and three substantive sections: • The Context for TKNs—describes why TKNs are needed. • The TKN Concept—presents history of the TKN concept; defines the purpose and functions of TKNs, proposes a framework for measuring success of future investments in TKNs; defines the market, products, and services to be pro- vided; and describes the stewardship model to be utilized for delivering these products and services. • Costs and Funding—provides a breakdown of annual funding needs by function. Each major section is summarized below. The full business plan is attached in Appendix A to this report. Context for Transportation Knowledge Networks The business case for TKNs is grounded in the need for innovation and rapid development of solutions to critical changes in transportation, including inadequate funding, increasing inflation, congestion, deteriorating infrastructure, unacceptable highway fatality rates, and heightened risks of natural disasters and terrorist attacks that necessitate stronger emergency response and evacuation systems. Moreover, these issues must be addressed in an increasingly constrained and dynamic environment of economic crisis, climate change, and concerns about dependence on fossil fuels. Ability to meet these challenges depends on expeditious discovery and imple- mentation of new technologies, programs, and methods. Rapid dissemination of research findings, technology developments, lessons learned, and actionable information is needed to ensure the necessary pace of innovation and change. Transportation lags behind health (and other fields) in pro- viding a well-supported information infrastructure to ensure that any level of research investment is providing maximum value, and in ensuring that beneficial innovations occurring within individual organizations (outside of research and development efforts) are expeditiously documented and dis- seminated to others. An improved information infrastructure addresses the ubiquitous problem of information overload, providing a means to speed discovery of accurate and relevant information. It also provides an ongoing mechanism to cap- ture essential information not currently available within library catalogs or via Internet searches. The current wave of baby boomer retirements and an increasingly fluid workforce make improvements to knowledge capture and dissemination espe- cially urgent. Transportation Knowledge Network Concept Purpose The business plan describes the purpose of TKNs and the potential payoff from investments in transportation informa- tion sharing. TKNs are intended to improve peer-to-peer information sharing about successful practices; provide more efficient access to information resources including data sets, documents, and multi-media objects; and enable more effi- cient and effective conduct of research. They will help improve efficiency by making it easier for both researchers and practi- tioners to build upon and re-use existing work. Studies from IDC and Outsell are cited that document monetary savings from information services. The IDC and Outsell findings attrib- ute these savings to (1) reducing the amount of time needed to locate information and (2) using information discovered to avoid or reduce costs that would otherwise have been incurred without the information. Examples of how information services produced clear pay- offs are also provided from the 1998 FHWA report on the C H A P T E R 4 Business Plan Summary

value of information services, TR News, and the Library Connectivity Pooled Fund Study. Performance Framework The performance framework in the business plan consists of a mission statement, goals, and performance measures for TKNs. The mission statement is: Support and sustain a network of transportation information providers . . . to collaborate and leverage collective resources . . . so that they can provide transportation professionals with timely and convenient access to relevant information . . . that enables faster progress toward meeting critical transportation challenges. Goals are: • Achievement of a noticeable improvement in information access as perceived by transportation professionals; • Greater collaboration across transportation information producers and providers that leads to improved resource sharing; • Preservation of valuable transportation resources that are at risk due to retirements, employee turnover, agency moves, and other factors; and • Capacity building within the transportation information provider community. Recommended performance measures cover four categories: • End user market penetration and benefits—user awareness of TKN services, user-reported benefits from TKN services, changes in access time, and cost for a standard “basket” of information goods. • Information provider involvement and benefits—TKN membership levels and reported benefits from members. • Shared information resources—percentage of unique trans- portation library holdings that can be discovered via avail- able search tools; percentage of active and completed research projects that can be discovered; adoption of stan- dards and practices for interoperability of transportation information. • Product and service accomplishment vs. targets— achievement of specific targeted products and services. Market The business plan identifies the potential market for TKNs to include a broad set of public and private sector organiza- tions involved in funding, planning, and providing trans- portation in all modes and in R&D that supports improved transportation practice. It suggests that the TKN initiative begin with a focus within a limited market and subsequently expand to include additional markets once initial infrastruc- ture is built and success is demonstrated. The initial market segment should be one where clear and significant benefits of investment can be demonstrated, where resources can be secured, and where there is already some level of awareness of and support for the TKN concept. Based on these criteria, pos- sible target organizations are FHWA, state DOTs, UTCs, MPOs, LTAP/TTAP Centers; and professional associations that represent or serve members of these organizations. Tar- get customers or end users for TKNs are senior technical and management staff within DOTs and directors of UTCs, MPOs, and LTAP/TTAP Centers. Products and Services The business plan identifies ten key functions for TKNs that enable the national network of transportation information providers to achieve the mission and realize the vision of the strategic transportation information infrastructure. These include print and digital transportation information reposito- ries, a national portal including specific information modules and a federated search capability, development and mainte- nance of standards to facilitate information sharing and discov- ery, outreach and coordination to transportation information providers, and end user outreach and education. See Chapter 3 of this report for a description of the TKN products and serv- ices that were included in the business plan. Stewardship Model The stewardship model for TKNs includes three elements: a national coordination function, regional TKNs, and an advi- sory board. In developing the stewardship model, the research team took the recommendations of TRB Special Report 284 as “givens”—that is, we began with this three-tiered structure. National Coordination Function. The research team examined several options for where the TKN-NCB (TKN National Coordinating Body) might be housed. Among those options, the NTL already has established relationships with the transportation library community and is playing a key lead- ership role in assisting with regional TKN formation and implementation of the digital repository. Similar national coordination functions for the fields of agriculture and med- icine are being served by the NAL and the National Library of Medicine. If the NTL were to become the TKN-NCB, then it could also serve as the federal TKN, working to improve coordination and information sharing within U.S.DOT and with other federal agencies. In order for the NTL to be suc- cessful in this coordination role, the business plan concludes that the TKN-NCB would require a stable source of dedicated funding for the TKN coordination functions. Specific staff functions are defined (which could be provided by in-house or contractor resources), including management and coordi- 18

nation, information architecture, standards and cataloging, collection management, information systems management, and user services. Regional TKNs. The outreach conducted for the business plan found that the need for regional TKNs was not broadly understood or accepted. There were questions about why a regional approach was required given today’s technology for information sharing and whether this approach might create unnecessary layers of coordination and bureaucracy. The arguments for retaining the regional TKNs are compelling, however. Regional TKNs ensure substantive stakeholder involvement in TKN service provision. They provide a greater level of strength and stability to the network by offering oppor- tunities for leadership development and innovation within the transportation information provider community. This makes the network more resilient, which reduces its vulnerability to departures of key individuals. Regional networks also allow for leverage of existing interagency relationships and regional gatherings and more focused outreach activities than are pos- sible at the national level. The business plan acknowledges that three regional TKNs are up and running, providing an initial foundation for the network. Current TKNs operate under an informal model in which there is no membership fee, leadership is rotated among the membership, and each member is asked to commit to some level of information sharing but active participation is voluntary. The business plan suggests that the regional TKNs may evolve toward more formal models involving formation of nonprofit associations and development of specific service offerings to members. It allows for a range of organizational models to be followed, depending on the needs, goals, and resources of the members. Membership in a TKN could entitle an organization to apply for grants from the national coordina- tion function to develop information products and provide services. These grants could be made for outreach and deliv- ery of specific products and services that have a national ben- efit. They could be awarded in response to specific proposals for development of products or services (e.g., to digitize a collection and make it available to the entire transportation community) rather than on a formula basis. The national coordination function would need to develop criteria in its solicitation package that reinforce collaborative efforts across TKN members who use these funds. TKN Advisory Board. With respect to the advisory board, TRB SR 284 recommended a governance body for TKNs be created by modifying the Advisory Council on Transporta- tion Statistics (ACTS) to broaden its membership, focus, and reporting functions. A RITA representative suggested that instead of modifying the legislatively mandated charter for the ACTS, an independent stakeholders’ council could be estab- lished with representation from AASHTO membership, aca- demia, and other national libraries. The business plan out- lines the advantages of a separate advisory board rather than altering responsibilities of the ACTS. The primary role of the advisory board would be to ensure that the national coordination function uses broad stakeholder input as it allocates available resources and makes decisions on specific product and service offerings. The business plan describes an advisory board with up to 13 members, including representatives from a broad cross section of stakeholders, which could include AASHTO, TRB, a state DOT library, a university transportation library, a UTC, a transportation engi- neering or consulting firm, an LTAP/TTAP Center, the Special Libraries Association–Transportation Division, and a repre- sentative of the NAL (to provide an external perspective and lessons learned from similar undertakings). The plan suggests that the board meet quarterly, and that it produce an annual or biennial assessment of TKN performance. Chapter 6 of this report (Implementation Plan) outlines two approaches that might be considered for formation of this advisory board: It could be established by the U.S.DOT follow- ing provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), or it could be established by a non-governmental organization such as the National Academy of Sciences (following require- ments under section 15 of FACA.) Costs and Funding The total estimated average annual funding needs (over a 5-year period) to implement TKNs is $13.5 million. The busi- ness plan provides estimates of how these costs break down by the ten TKN products and services, but notes that the actual allocation of a given budget across functions could vary con- siderably. The estimated breakdown is: • $7.9 million for providing content that will be accessible via the central portal from both national sources and collabora- tive efforts of federal, state, and local knowledge network participants. • $3.1 million for the technical and administrative infra- structure, including standards coordination and thesaurus maintenance. • $1.5 million for outreach and education. • $1 million for research and literature review services. While the national coordination function should work with the advisory board to determine the best allocation of available resources, rules of thumb based on the analysis conducted for development of the TKN business plan are: • Half of the funds ($6–7 million) would be for grants to regional TKN members for development of content, pro- viding research and literature review services, coordination and outreach to information providers, and end user out- 19

reach and education. The national coordination function would consult with the advisory board and establish poli- cies for eligible activities and program priorities each year. Based on these priorities, the board would develop a solic- itation package. TKN members respond to this package and grants would be awarded competitively based on the mer- its of the submittals. • The remaining funds would be for the National Coordi- nation Body. Funds would be split (in roughly equal parts) for staffing (combination of contracted and in-house resources), purchase of access to commercial information sources and services, and direct costs (including hardware, software licenses, storage fees, shipping, travel, and special- ized services). 20

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TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 643: Implementing Transportation Knowledge Networks explores a business plan for the development of Transportation Knowledge Networks (TKNs) in the United States. The business plan defines ten key products and services to be provided to transportation practitioners by the regional TKNs, with support from a national coordination function. TKNs are defined as “decentralized, managed networks linking information providers to users wherever they are located.”

Note Added 10/22/2010 - In a follow-up effort, the research team developed an Directory of U.S. transportation libraries and information centers that could be potential participants in the TKNs. The directory is available online at the National Transportation Library website.

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