And the Gracie goes to…

The Federal Highway Administration’s Knowledge Management Initiative has been awarded Government Executive magazine’s 2001 Government Technology Leadership Award, also known as the Gracie, in recognition of the agency’s efforts to break down information barriers between agencies and between federal, state and local governments.

"Knowledge management is facilitating the transformation of our agency into an organization primed to meet the transportation challenges of the 21st century," FHWA Administrator Mary Peters said. "This initiative takes advantage of our most valuable asset, the collective expertise of our employees and partners, to make FHWA a more effective government agency."

The magazine calls the award Gracie because it "embodies the spirit and foresight of Rear Admiral Grace Hopper." During her 43-year career in the Navy, Adm. Hopper became known as a trailblazer in technology, supported innovation and bucked the "shortsighted strictures of bureaucracy."

Knowledge management captures and broadly shares written information on a subject and also shares the information accumulated by the people within an organization.

The FHWA program also received the E-Gov 2001 Explorer Award in May 2001 from the Government Solutions Center and the Intergovernmental Solutions Award in June 2001 from the Federation of Government Information Processing Councils.