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Accessing Transportation Information Resources Worldwide
St. Petersburg, Florida
Sunday, July 29, 2001 - 1:45 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Floor ten Brink,
Information Specialist
CROW (Information and Technology Centre for Transport and Infrastructure)

Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you for coming at this early stage of the conference. I'm Floor ten Brink, information specialist at CROW (Information and Technology Centre for Transport and Infrastructure), the Netherlands. I have been asked to tell you more about CROW and the way in which we interpret the concept of knowledge management.

But first, more about my employer, CROW. Since 1957, several forerunners of our organisation had been involved in dealing with infrastructure and traffic technique. The present CROW came into being in 1987 following a merger of these three separate predecessors. Now, almost fifteen years later, CROW has expanded to become the national information and technology centre for transport and infrastructure. As you will see, this period has seen CROW's activities broaden from pure technical aspects to transport and infrastructure in the widest sense.

The core tasks involve collective research in the area of traffic, transport and infrastructure, standardisation, and the transfer of knowledge and knowledge management in this sector. These tasks are implemented for government authorities, the business community, contractors, suppliers, consultancies, and training and consumer organisations. CROW carries out these tasks as a professional organisation fulfilling its platform function with a focus on applicability and independence. We are a non-profit foundation, so the knowledge products that we produce are offered to the market at cost price.

CROW is financed by subsidies from clients and contractors' organisations as well as by contributions to research projects and the proceeds from specifications for each project in which the RAW (Rationalization and Automation in Traffic and Civil Engineering Projects) system is applied.

As regards co-operation with other organisations, CROW works in many forms both nationally and internationally. In the Netherlands, for example, CROW collaborates with government authorities - particularly road management bodies - contractors, public transport organisations, trade organisations within the transport sector and training institutes, including many technical universities and colleges of higher education.

International co-operation takes place in working parties and involves such organisations as CEN (European Committee for Standardization), ICIS (International Centre for Integrative Studies), OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), PIARC (World Road Association), and RILEM (International Association for Building Materials and Structures). CROW also works on behalf of the Netherlands in the European Union framework and COST (European Coordination in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) programmes, Transportation Research Board, the World Interchange Network, and of course the International Transport Research Documentation. In many such cases, CROW takes on the role of the Dutch interchange at the hub of international networks.

As regards the organisation itself, CROW has three substantial line departments in addition to the usual staff departments. The line departments are Research, Standardisation and Communication. The Research department consists of the traffic engineering and civil engineering sections. The traffic engineering section researches such subjects as work in progress, sustainable safe traffic, public transport, dynamic traffic management, accessibility of auxiliary services, speed bumps, exits, road design, pedestrian crossings, and so on.

The civil engineering section researches such subjects as sustainable building, groundwork and foundations, design methods, winter maintenance, road surface characteristics, management and maintenance, road building materials, environment, measuring and testing methods, quality safeguards, and the like. This research generally results in standards, manuals, working methods, et cetera.

The Standardisation department manages and maintains the RAW system. This is the national contract standard for specifications in the road and hydraulic engineering sector. Government authorities, contractors, consultancies and utilities all make use of this system. The standard RAW system is a leading example of standardised data transfer between market parties. The RAW system is now being applied on St Maarten in the West Indies and in Hungary too, and is currently being translated into English. In addition to periodic standard updates, the Standardisation Department also offers courses relating to working with this contract standard.

The Communication department ensures that the results of the other departments are available to everyone. This is reflected in publications, research reports, newsletters and other such means. Furthermore, the Communication department organises seminars, afternoon sessions geared to a particular theme, conferences and workshops. It is also responsible for the web site on the Intranet and Internet. And last but not least, the Communication department manages the documentation centre.

Let me now turn to the transfer of knowledge. To be able to transfer knowledge, you must first gather it. This happens in various ways, such as creating working groups. For every traffic engineering or civil engineering project, a working group is established. This working group is made up of specialists in the working area in question. These specialists work for another organisation and are made available to CROW for the purpose of the project. The working group is as broadly based as possible in order to exploit a wide range of experience and expertise. The working group usually consists of ten to fifteen persons who gather the necessary information by means of interviews, surveys and literature investigations. The working group's activities are often supported by a consultancy. As a result of the broad composition of the group, the project results have wide support among final users.

Another way of gathering knowledge is via publications from other organisations.

After knowledge has been gathered and processed, CROW is keen to share and spread this knowledge with other interested parties. This takes place in a number of ways:

Firstly, publications on paper. The results of a project are always published. These are presented as a research report or in a publication. Results are quickly available to the market and everyone can profit from these highly representative results even though the project may only just have been completed. If you take out a subscription, the publications are sent automatically. A mailing list and articles in various professional publications ensure that non-subscribers are kept informed of new publications, both in electronic and printed form.

Electronic publications are a second means of sharing knowledge. In addition to a printed publication, a CD-ROM is sometimes issued containing project results. The CD-ROM usually contains more information than the printed version, an illustrative film or sound effects can be added, for instance. Another advantage of the CD-ROM is that the contents can be searched more easily.

A third way of spreading information is the monthly magazine Wegen, or 'Roads' in English, and other publications. 'Roads' contains articles by specialists relating to one of the areas of traffic, transport and infrastructure. The authors are CROW employees and external specialists. 'Roads' follows discussion relating to these areas and publishes regular articles about current projects and other interesting subjects. For specific subjects, we also issue a newsletter. This can be obtained by subscription, which is often free of charge. In addition, CROW employees regularly contribute articles to other professional publications regarding current research in order to inform interested parties or to launch a debate.

Courses are a fourth way of sharing knowledge. Presentations are held relating to the RAW system. The writing of a specification and all related matters are explained in a class. Written courses are given dealing with traffic engineering and traffic technique. Students are supervised and come together on a monthly basis to exchange experiences and information.

Conferences, seminars and workshops are another means of spreading knowledge. In the Netherlands, CROW organises an annual Dutch Road Conference. Every year, this conference has a different theme and various parallel sessions. Both technical and policy aspects of CROW's activities are dealt with. Traffic engineering and civil engineering workshops are held every other year. For two days, professional colleagues discuss the latest developments regarding traffic engineering or road building. Within the framework of a particular project, seminars are occasionally organised to address a specific subject. These are often related to the appearance of a publication or to discuss the progress of a project and to test the opinions of colleagues. CROW employees regularly give presentations at home and abroad.

A sixth way of sharing knowledge is the presentation of a stand at fairs. CROW has a stand at important specialised fairs at home or abroad or at the knowledge market at conferences. This stand provides information about CROW, its projects and publications, and includes demonstrations of CD-ROMs and the web site. We are sometimes asked to arrange a stand on behalf of the Netherlands as a whole. We were recently present at the Dutch stand at the IRF world conference in Paris, France, and you can visit us shortly at Velocity, the bicycle conference in Edinburgh and Glasgow in the United Kingdom.

We also spread knowledge via our infopoint, infodesk and helpdesk. The Sustainable Safety infopoint gathers and spreads knowledge and experiences regarding sustainable safe traffic and makes this knowledge accessible by issuing publications and brochures and through its own web site. Furthermore, written and telephone questions from those involved in this subject are answered within 48 hours. The most wide-ranging questions regarding work in progress are answered by the Work in Progress helpdesk. Questions relating to both work on motorways as well as other roads and all associated matters are answered as soon as possible. All questions connected with traffic, transport and infrastructure are dealt with by the project leaders who are active in the area concerned.

As regards the civil engineering sector, CROW participates in the Sustainable Building Infodesk at the National Centre for Sustainable Building. All information regarding this subject in the civil engineering sector is available at this centre and questions can be asked. CROW also publishes the civil engineering sector National Sustainable Building Package.

If someone has questions or problems regarding the use or applicability of the RAW system, they can contact the RAW helpdesk. The questions are often answered by RAW Information and Support section consultants. Frequent questions are included in a special facts section of the 'Roads' magazine. An overview of these questions can be found on the web site.

The CROW web site, www.crow.nl, is a very convenient means of disseminating and sharing knowledge. The site contains the following sections: how to contact us, news, the organisation, calendar, projects, products and services, RAW, magazine 'Roads', courses, conferences/seminars, other sites, site map, search.

The news, organisation and site map pages need no introduction. On the calendar page, all interesting national and international conferences are listed for each month and year, and already includes listings for 2003. The projects page provides an overview of all civil and traffic engineering projects as well as projects of the standardisation department. The projects are grouped according to subject. In each product description, the leader of that particular project is also indicated. The project leader in question can be asked a question directly using a link to the e-mail address. The products and services page provides an overview of everything we offer in a particular area and how this can be put to use. The RAW page contains an explanation of the RAW and the associated possibilities. The 'Roads' magazine page explains how to obtain a subscription. In addition, the archive containing all back numbers from the last three years can be consulted. The courses page has an overview of all presentations and written courses with locations, dates and a registration form. The conference/seminars page contains a list of the conferences/seminars organised by CROW. This page also has an electronic registration form. The whole site can be searched using the search function. The result not only provides all information relating to a project with that subject, but also provides information about related articles and publications. Moreover, publications can be ordered via the web shop, which contains all CROW publications. Searches can be made using a topic, key word or article number.

As you already have heard, the documentation centre contains publications, reports, conference presentations and magazines related to traffic, transport and infrastructure. The documentation department carries out search assignments for interested parties. External parties can also search for literature in the documentation centre. Every month, a documentation overview is drawn up containing magazine articles and publications that have been entered that month. This overview can be found on the Intranet and Internet web site. Both employees and external parties can request copies of magazine articles. At the end of each calendar year, the monthly overviews are combined in an annual overview.

In the documentation centre, we subscribe to almost one hundred magazines. There are also about eight thousand books, reports, conference reports and reference works, and space is available for newer media such as CD-ROMs and video. The Internet and the ITRD database are consulted of course. Internet can be used to consult the catalogue of the Delft University of Technology and of the National Library.

The International Transport Research Documentation is a world-wide database in the area of roads and transport. For the Netherlands, CROW enters all Dutch publications into the database relating to civil engineering and traffic technique. The SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research does the same for traffic safety.

The documentation centre has an active signalling policy and issues various literature overviews. The documentation centre employees carry out literature research for other colleagues on request.

Questions can always be put to CROW via e-mail at crow@crow.nl. These questions are dealt with as quickly as possible. If a question is not specifically related to CROW, the questioner is referred to the correct body. After all, CROW is a knowledge centre and therefore knows which organisations provide which information.

In the near future, CROW will be expanding its activities in the area of knowledge transfer, including more focus on the Internet. We are currently considering whether it is useful to make certain publications available via the Internet in their entirety. This is an interesting option particularly for the written courses due to the distribution speed. Control lists and certain Work in Progress presentations will also be available via the web site.

Other options include: the revision of draft texts via the Internet, after which the texts will finally be published in book form, discussion group support via the web site, searching the documentation centre catalogue via the Internet, and so on.
I hope to gain more ideas in this area at this conference and look forward to the other presentations.

Thank you for your attention.