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<Paper uid="X96-1004">
  <Title>Some Technology Transfer: Observations from the TIPSTER Text Program</Title>
  <Section position="1" start_page="0" end_page="23" type="abstr">
    <SectionTitle>
1. Introduction
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    <Paragraph position="0"> Technology Transfer has been an important part of the TIPSTER Text Program from the beginning.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> Research alone was insufficient as a motivation for the program. What was discovered in the laboratory had also to be transferred as quickly as possible into the workplace. The central role of technology transfer in the initial formation of TIPSTER had several causes.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> Government sponsors and initiators of the program, in 1990, could see clearly the inadequacies of the tools that analysts were working with, at the time, and could also see that the overload of text which analysts dealt with was only going to get worse, given the proliferation of information sources and the increasing push in the Intelligence Community to tap those sources. Knowing the normally long time it takes research advances to make their way into standard technology, the founders of the program rightly believed a concerted effort to place good technology in the hands of users would be necessary to insure that they received the benefits of the program as soon as possible. There were other pressures: continuing reductions in the numbers of analysts available to do analysis, reductions in budgets, and constant pressures to justify Government sponsored research in terms of demonstrable and practical benefits to the Government.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3"> The research fields sponsored by TIPSTER are application oriented in any case. Both Document Detection and Information Extraction imply an eventual user - someone who needs documents or someone who needs particular information about particular kinds of entities or events. Successful research does thus have direct implications for operational applications. But more broadly, applications can be important to much research that deals with human language. Language exists for the communication of meaning. Any automated processing of language cannot be really evaluated outside the context of the actions of expressing and understanding, both actions which are highly situation, or task, dependent. In addition, language is a human construct and, whatever its imperfections, a person is I This material has been reviewed by the CIA. That review neither \[ constitutes CIA authentication of information nor implies CIA I \[ endorsement of the author's views. I the only real authority we have on language, the only measure of whether or not meaning has been conveyed.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="4"> The application of automated language processing to concrete human tasks is itself an important research method in this field. Although the goal of strengthening the science through the application of the technology was not explicitly stated as a reason for the emphasis on technology transfer in the TIPSTER Program, nonetheless I think the emphasis on tasks and on the usefulness of the technology is benefiting the underlying science of computational linguistics.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="5"> Central to the initial TIPSTER planning, then, was the goal of technology transfer. The magnitude of the difficulty of achieving that goal was perhaps not well understood in the early days of the program; but since then, we have all learned that this transfer does not happen automatically, but requires even more effort, planning, and creativity than the research. The goal of technology transfer is subscribed to by both Government and contractor participants. There are considerable potential rewards which serve as important motivations to people involved in the process - material incentives, but also the satisfaction of building something that works and does useful tasks for people who need it. These rewards are important, because the process of technology transfer is difficult and messy. It requires the persistence and flexibility to tackle many obstacles. It is as much a matter of business and psychology, as it is of technology and engineering.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="6"> TIPSTER Phase II has made a number of strides forward in transferring the research advances of Phase I into operational use. Collectively the participants in the program have learned a great deal about what works and does not work in transferring technology. The program remains committed to continuing an aggressive technology transfer effort. This paper summarizes what I have learned from the Phase II effort. It can perhaps serve as a basis for others to reflect on the same issues. A record of what was learned in Phase II efforts will be valuable for continued tech transfer in the future.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="7">  2. What is meant by Technology</Paragraph>
  </Section>
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