About Me

There is a serious, professional me who has worked for some interesting organizations doing a variety of things -- is that vague enough for you? Currently, my 8-to-4 job takes me to Maryland, where every morning, I walk by a Nobel Prize medal in the lobby of my workplace.  As a "Knowledge Management Project Manager" --that's right, that is my official title -- you'd think I manage a lot of knowledge.  In fact, I try to avoid using the term "knowledge management."

So, what do I do all day long?  I help people to take the time to reflect upon their work, talk to each other about their respective experiences and learn from each other. so that they don't reinvent the wheel or repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

I started my professional life with the firm intent to put my Masters and PhD in International Affairs to good use, and I did that for a while. I spent a year overseas (Liberia), established myself as an independent consultant, traveled extensively on short trips, eventually figured out it wasn't compatible with my family life, so I took on more research-oriented and HQ/backstopping positions and specialized in programs to support the effective use of information and communication technologies for developing countries (ICT4D). At the top of that professional cycle, I co-authored a book titled Making the Connection: Scaling Telecenters for Development. (Visit my Publications and Presentations page for additional information)

In those days, I also developed and taught a class on the same topic.  That was probably the best thing I ever did totally on my own. The ROI (if measured in financial terms) was negative, but I really loved developing the materials and teaching, so I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

In 2008, I took a sharp turn to focus on Knowledge Management and jumped in as a contractor at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in the Office of the Chief Knowledge Officer.    

Barbara Fillip's Knowledge Management blog  is self-explanatory in terms of what it covers.

Aside from the misleading wardrobe (or lack thereof), I like this caricature of a future me who has reversed the aging process and spends time autographing books.  It's a nice fantasy, since by the time I manage to publish a book worth autographing, I'm pretty sure pens will be in the museum of antiquities and authors will be imprinting audio messages in their little darlings.

I've written three novels.  All three are collecting electrostatic dust in the dark entrails of a computer running on its last leg.  I am now (wisely) limiting the scope of my fiction writing experiments and trying my hands at short stories.

Barbara Fillip Reads and Writes is what I refer to as my "fiction blog."  Nothing fictional about it but it's focused on my interest in fiction writing and reading.

And finally, if you're still reading, some trivia:
1. I turn heads... when I sneeze (it's an inherited condition that rattles the brain).
2. I like the color blue and I love cheese, but I will never, ever ingest blue cheese.