Identification and Evaluation of Technology Transfer Benefits: Definition of a Registry in Support of the Strategic Development of Next Gen Architectures

摘要

In an effort to facilitate enabler transfer and fertilization across sectors, this paper proposes a web-based registry comprised of a taxonomy, metrics, and metadata. Focus is given to enabler "identification" and enabler "discovery," where discovery uses lower-level descriptions of enabler function to suggest unobvious uses across sectors. To better understand these problems, a review of related existing approaches is conducted that includes the field of Management of Technology, the Federal Enterprise Architecture, TRIZ, and another empirical approach. Overarching enabler transfer objectives and observations of existing approaches are then used to define registry requirements. As a result, two key points are considered to generally support a technical approach to create this registry: a more rigorous and methodical approach to creating a taxonomy and the application of concepts from the field of information visualization. Using a "science of taxonomies," which is defined in this paper, a hybrid taxonomy is proposed that describes enablers by their function. It is composed of two types of levels: "functional," which describes low-level functions, and "pragmatic," which describes high-level functions. These levels, though extensible, are populated using elements from the reviewed existing approaches. Finally, the complete registry is proposed to support the strategic development of Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) architectures.