Transportation Knowledge Sharing, Federal Highway Administration

Many states didn't know that Pennsylvania and New York had had success with installing rumble strips, so in January 1998, FHWA created a community of practice on the Web. The site enables engineers to view reports, ask questions in a discussion forum and look through a contact list of experts and others researching or installing rumble strips. Now, FHWA also has communities of practice dedicated to highway hardware and red light running.

The initiative has become a model for sharing information across the spectrum of government agencies and even the private sector. Mike Burk, FHWA's chief knowledge officer, whose team created the Web site, told Government Executive in October that FHWA is a technical organization. "We have knowledge and expertise and want to be able to sit at a table and share it," he said. "We act as a broker of knowledge. We are also a facilitator. Because if there isn't a good answer, we tend to know who the movers and shakers are."

The site has been successful, Burk said, because it encourages users to spread information rather than hoard it-the essence of knowledge management.