On Monday, August 6, the DOE-VPP community unveiled its new VPP Information Portal. The DOE-VPP Portal is designed to provide real time information to the DOE VPP community on both emerging VPP related issues, and innovative safety and health program improvements, both within the DOE as well as in the private sector.
The new DOE VPP Portal is designed to promote synergy and VPP information sharing among the DOE VPP Federal and contractor partners in hopes of:
The genesis of the new DOE VPP Portal is an outgrowth of the recent innovative developments in the field of Knowledge Management. Since its inception, the Internet held the promise of an environment where knowledge was shared, re-used, and made available to those who need it instantly. We live in a world where information is plentiful, where the sources of information are diverse, and where the tools to search for information are advanced and inexpensive; yet, it is challenging to get "the right information at the right time". While the web is becoming the greatest repository of human knowledge ever assembled, finding the right information, when its needed, has become a daunting task.
As the magnitude of information available on the Internet grows, so too does the need for processes to filter out extraneous information. Organizations that have implemented processes to better manage corporate knowledge have prospered, while those that have not adapted, have begun to falter. To handle the hurricane of information that now surrounds us, Internet-based tools, called Portals, were created. Portals allow organizations like the DOE VPP Community a single, browser-based point of entry to all its collective assets.
From its content rich home page, to its hyperlink index of the new DOE VPP Program and Procedure Manual, the new DOE VPP Portal is user friendly. The placement of links on the DOE VPP home page allows this page to serve as a central gateway to all new VPP related news, articles, VPP tools, and information on the site.
In addition to VPP-related news and articles, the site also provides users easy access to the latest DOE VPP contact information, an inventory of VPP-related tools and processes from across the DOE complex, and a complex wide calender of VPP-related events. Plans are also on the books to create an innovative community of interest discussion forum where DOE VPP community members, both Federal and contractors, will be able to collaborate in a real time, on-line environment, thereby enhancing the accomplishment of DOE VPP goals.
Because the new DOE VPP Portal is a member-oriented site, all members of the DOE VPP community are actively encouraged to contribute to it. All articles submitted will be indexed by site, as well as the topical area addressed by the article. The organization of articles in this manner will allow visitors to more easily read other articles contributed by the given site or written on the given topic.
The DOE VPP Headquarters program staff team will constantly scour the World Wide Web for articles of interest to the DOE VPP community. Our goal is to always ensure there is always something new on the site. We hope to keep participants in the DOE VPP on the cutting edge on safety and health performance.
We hope you agree that the new DOE VPP portal is a major step forward and will quickly become the principle tool for accessing and sharing VPP related information exchanges within the DOE complex.
If you have any question, comments, or suggested improvement items, we would love to hear them. Please e-mail them to us at DOEVPP@eh.doe.gov.