The purpose of the knowledge matrix project is to create tools to maintain and disseminate information about the skills of TCC employees.
Audiences for this program include:
TCC users who need help with a particular skill. These users will refer to either the printed form of the ``knowledge matrix'' or the equivalent set of Web pages.
TCC employees who must inventory their skills when joining the organization, and who will update their skill inventory periodically. These users will use the xskill application, which is a GUI-based program that must be run under the X Window system.
The TCC Services Coordinator maintains the current list of employees, and adds, changes, or removes skills from the list. This will be done with direct editing of the XML-based data files.
Here is the structure of the data stored in the skills database. See the appendices for the formal structure of the XML file.
The people file, people.xml, describes the department structure and enumerates the employees in each department.
For each person, there is a unique set of two- or three-letter initials to be used in the column headings of narrow table columns; the person's account (login) name; their first and last names; and, if they wish to publish it, the URL of their work account homepage.
The skills matrix, matrix.xml, organizes the skills as a three-level hierarchy:
The skills are divided into major headings identifying the people who need the skills: users, user consultants, operators (those who run backups, for example), and TCC staff internal use.
Each major heading is divided into skill groups. For example, under the ``User Skills'' major heading, we might group the skills into topics such as graphics packages, text editors, and so on.
Each specific skill (such as the use of a single package like Photoshop) has a ``short name'' (e.g., ``Photoshop'') and an optional block of textual details explaining what the skill is.
For each skill, there is a list of people skilled in that area, and one of four broad rating categories: B for beginner, I for intermediate, and E for expert. People with no skill in that area are omitted from the list entirely, representing a fourth rating: N for none.
Here is the procedure for adding new employees to the skills database:
Get a staff account if you don't already have one.
Make sure the system administrator adds your work account to the ``net groups'' file; this is necessary so programs can authenticate you as a TCC employee.
Have the TCC Services Coordinator add you to the people file. (This procedure is described in the section Updating the people file.)
Login to a Unix or Linux workstation using your work account.
Change to the knowledge matrix directory:
cd /u/www/docs/tcc/help/know
In any shell window on your X Window System screen, type the command
xskill&
This brings up an application that will show you all the skills and let you check your skill level. Follow the directions. Be sure you visit all the pages: click on the Next page button after completing each page. You can use the Quit button in the bottom right corner anytime if you don't have time to finish.
When you have finished running xskill, notify the TCC Services Coordinator to update the printed and web versions of the knowledge matrix. (This procedure is described below in the section on Updating the printable and Web files.)