Simone Kaplan

While it's true that the government was able to come up with that color-coded Homeland Security threat level system all on its own, some academics think the feds could use a hand.

Now that President Bush has given the thumbs up to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), one might expect corporate America to start hiring security experts like mad. But they're not.

A veteran CIO of a New York city-based financial services company learned in July 2002 that several vital files had vanished from one of his company's 25 servers. An employee had tried to find some information and failed. That's when IS discovered that there was, in fact, no company information on that particular server at all. Panicked, the CIO and his staff went into emergency mode.

When Tom Rossi, director of the Innovation Lab at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I., began a knowledge management initiative in 1999, he thought he knew everything. Rossi and his team were charged with creating a futuristic environment for computerized war games. The games, held annually for more than 20 years, have about 500 senior military and civilian players who need to share real-time information about troop deployments, battle readiness and the battlefield environment. Prior to Rossi's KM project, the gamer commanders had to gather information via phone calls, memos, e-mails and game books none of which encouraged the kind of instantaneous decision-making necessary in combat situations.

Even in the best of times, morale is a delicate, unpredictable thing. Will one employee sulk when another receives a promotion? Will a cancelled project throw a team into a tailspin of recrimination and apathy? Will a switch from lobster bisque to pea soup in the company cafeteria cost you your best worker? Threading your way through these problems can be like negotiating a minefield. At any moment, something can blow up in your face and send productivity tumbling even as your employees commence to mumbling and grumbling.

When Ray Tomlinson merged two computer protocols, he had no idea he was creating what would become a staple of modern communication

The U.S. Congress is attempting to tap the private sector's IT expertise and resources by allowing federal IT workers to swap jobs with their peers in the corporate world.

Should the Bush administration do more to boost private sector use of IT? That