Rebecca O. Barclay

Engineers as Information Processors: A Survey of US Aerospace Engineering Faculty and Students.

SUMMARY US aerospace engineering faculty and students were surveyed as part of the NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Research Project. Faculty and students were viewed as information processors within a conceptual framework of information-seeking behavior. Questionnaires were received from 275 faculty members and 640 students which were used to determine (1) use and importance of information sources, (2) use of specific print sources and electronic data bases, (3) use of information technology and (4) the influence of instruction on the use of information sources and products by faculty and students. As information processors, US aerospace faculty and students are ‘information naive’, seek out information alone or with the help of co-workers, tend not to make use of the information products and services oriented to them, make limited use of librarians, and make considerable use of computer and information technology. Little evidence was found to support the belief that instruction in library or engineering inf...

Knowledge Diffusion in the U.S. Aerospace Industry

Perspectives the evolution of large commercial aircraft in the U.S. - an overview U.S. public policy and large commercial aircraft-politics, market dynamics, and innovation U.S. public policy and the diffusion of government funded aeronautical research and technology. Findings: distinguishing engineers from scientists - the case for an engineering knowledge community the NASA: DoD aerospace knowledge diffusion research project the production and use of information by U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists - a cross-industry analysis the relationship between technical uncertainty and information by U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists the differential effects of workspace experience on information production and use - a comparison of new and established U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists the production and use of information by U.S. aerospace engineering and science students - a comparison of graduate and undergraduate students the production and use of information among aerospace engineering professionals and students - a cross-national analysis the influence of uncertainty, equivocality, and analyzability on communications in small, medium and large organizations computer networks and communications in the U.S. aerospace workplace information intermediaries and aerospace knowledge diffusion - the role of U.S. academic and industry libraries and librarians the role of the U.S. government technical report in aerospace knowledge diffusion. Strategies for improvement: western European and Asian public policies and aerospace knowledge diffusion a comparative analysis of U.S. policies and practices and western European and Asian public policies or knowledge diffusion improved strategies for diffusing the results of federally funded aerospace R & D to the U.S. aircraft industry.

Maximizing the Results of Federally-Funded Research and Development through Knowledge Management: A Strategic Imperative for Improving U.S. Competitiveness.

Abstract Federally-funded research and development (R&D) represents a significant annual investment (approximately

NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Paper 37: The impact of political control on technical communications: A comparative study of Russian and US aerospace engineers and scientists

79 billion in fiscal year 1996) on the part of U.S. taxpayers. Based on the results of a 10-year study of knowledge diffusion in the U.S. aerospace industry, the authors take the position that U.S. competitiveness will be enhanced if knowledge management strategies, employed within a capability-enhancing U.S. technology policy framework, are applied to diffusing the results of federally-funded R&D. In making their case, the authors stress the importance of knowledge as the source of competitive advantage in todays global economy. Next, they offer a practice-based definition of knowledge management and discuss three current approaches to knowledge management implementation—mechanistic, “the learning organization,” and systemic. The authors then examine three weaknesses in existing U.S. public policy and policy implementation—the dominance of knowledge creation, the need for diffusion-oriented technology policy, and the prevalence of a dissemination model—that affect diffusion of the results of federally-funded R&D. To address these shortcomings, they propose the development of a knowledge management framework for diffusing the results of federally-funded R&D. The article closes with a discussion of some issues and challenges associated with implementing a knowledge management framework for diffusing the results of federally-funded R&D.

A new era in international technical communication: American-Russian collaboration

Until the recent dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party exerted a strict control of access to and dissemination of scientific and technical information (STI). This article presents models of the Soviet-style information society and the Western-style information society and discusses the effects of centralized governmental control of information on Russian technical communication practices. The effects of political control on technical communication are then used to interpret the results of a survey of Russian and U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists concerning the time devoted to technical communication, their collaborative writing practices and their attitudes toward collaboration, the kinds of technical documents they produce and use, and their use of computer technology, and their use of and the importance to them of libraries and technical information centers. The data are discussed in terms of tentative conclusions drawn from the literature. Finally, we conclude with four questions concerning government policy, collaboration, and the flow of STI between Russian and U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists.

NASA/DoD aerospace knowledge diffusion research project

Models of the Soviet-style information society and the Western-style information society are presented, the effects of centralized governmental control of information on Russian technical communication practices are discussed. The effects of political control on technical communications are then used to interpret the results of a survey of Russian and US aerospace engineers and scientists concerning the time devoted to technical communication, their collaborative writing practices and their attitudes toward collaboration, the kinds of technical documents they produce and use, their views regarding the appropriate content for an undergraduate technical communication course, and their use of computer technology. The implications of these findings for future collaboration between Russia and US engineers and scientists are examined.