1. SPE 86808
In Company Virtual Networking for HSE Professionals: The HSE Global Network
Paul Gerlings, Shell E&P; Charlie Malone, Shell E&P; Robin Harding, Shell E&P.
Copyright 2004, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.
This paper was prepared for presentation at The Seventh SPE International Conference on
Health, Safety, and Environment in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production held in Calgary,
Alberta, Canada, 29–31 March 2004.
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Abstract
This contribution describes the HSE Global Network since its
launch January 2002 in Shell Exploration and Production. The
HSE Global Network is a virtual community of HSE
professionals. It uses a combination of a web-based database,
daily email notifications, backed up with monthly
teleconferences and annual workshops. The network has
grown organically in membership as well as number of
exchanges. The content of the network is mostly solving
practical HSE issues. The biggest benefits of networking are
(1) speed of developing solutions and (2) improved quality of
HSE solutions.
An explanation of the success of the network is suggested, by
locating its place in the Knowledge Production cycle at the
induction side. It is suggested it counterbalances the
traditional deductive/ prescriptive top-down approach. The
challenges for the coming years are (1) to enable this top half
of the knowledge production cycle to take its place in the
Network and (2) to unlock and disclose the information
captured for future reference.
Introduction
HSE professionals are commonly a couple percent of an
organisation in the upstream industry. To their immediate co-
workers HSE is important as a boundary condition, rather than
a problem. The ‘HSE guy’ is the person who gets the
questions and has to find answers, today rather than tomorrow.
The HSE professionals are confronted with a wide variety of
topics, some of which they master, but most they only have an
awareness level in terms of knowledge.
HSE professionals have their traditional network: they meet
peers at conferences, courses and in professional
organisations. They call friends, mail colleagues, etc. They
read professional magazines to keep abreast with what is
available. When it comes to quick fire answers. this informal
network is vital. However, such traditional networks have
serious limitations: the maximum number of a persons in such
a network is 100; keeping up with who knows what is very
time consuming. In addition, often these quick fire answers
cannot be given as a person with the right knowledge is out of
the office.
Enter the HSE Global Network (HSEGN) within Shell
Exploration and Production, a web-based bulletin board
system that sends out daily email notifications of new
postings. This contribution describes the HSE GN since its
launch January 2002 and tries to explain its success by
comparing it with the empirical cycle of knowledge
production and confirmation.
Networking among HSE professionals
In their jobs, HSE professionals have a set of standards,
guidelines, procedures and rules, to which they have to
comply in an auditable manner. They have a network of peers
and seniors to which they can turn to in case they face
questions they don’t have an answer for or where the
guidelines are not 100% clear. This is done by visits, phone
calls or emails. Table 1 gives examples of new and probably
solved problems that HSE professionals face, from different
scientific disciplines.
New problem Probably solved
Physics
What are possible wave heights in
this sea?
How to use abseiling
techniques when climbing
flare stacks?.
Chemistry
How well does coating X stand in
this climate?
How to measure the quality
of coating X after 5 year?
Biology
What is known about the effect of
sub-sea noise on species X?
What are the risks of a
diabetes patient working
offshore?
Psychology
How to motivate people to comply
to this procedure in this culture?
How to train people so they
get better in assessing risks
of a new operation?
Sociology
What is a sufficient demonstration
of management commitment to
HSE?
How to learn lessons from
incident across cultures?
Table 1: Some examples of new and old problems.

2. 2 SPE 86808
The traditional way of working is depicted in figure 1. This
process of problem solving is hampered because:
• It is time consuming
• The personal network is limited and fragmented
• There is no way to assess the quality of the advice.
Global Networking for Knowledge Sharing
Introduction
In the last 5 years in Shell Exploration and Production there
has been an initiative, called Global Networks, to enhance the
traditional form of cooperation and networking. The aim of the
Networks is knowledge sharing. Since January 2002 a
dedicated forum for HSE professionals has been in place. The
networks use an IT tool with a (intranet) web front-end and a
Oracle database back-end, called SiteScape Forum. This tool
has characteristics of several traditional media and IT tools,
see table 2.
Trad. medium Traditional IT tool HSEGN examples
News bulletin,
journal
Email and static web
pages
HSE alerts
Discussions Telephone, email, E-
bulletin boards.
Queries and answers to
local HSE local issues and
problems.
Library Database, static web
pages
Standards, proven
solutions.
Meetings Telephone or video
conference
Virtual team areas.
Table 2: Comparison of functions of the SiteScape Forum tool.
User groups
The HSE Global Network is a set of user groups. The target
audience of the HSE Global Network are all people in Shell
Exploration and Production who are professionally engaged in
Health, Safety and Environment. The size of this group is
estimated to be 3000 people, which is approx. 10% of the
30000 (contract) staff working in Shell EP. Table 3 shows the
size of the registered user group on different points in time.
Month Active users Registered users
Jan 2002 120 200
Aug 2002 400 935
Jan 2003 760 1245
Jul 2003 1054 1600
Oct 2003 342 1483
Table 3: Registered and active users at five points in time
Recently, subgroups of the registered users have been added
for specific projects and regions. However, these have
generally not been active yet. The data in table 3 seem to
indicate a downward trend. However, these data are not
enough to base a trend line on. Also (1) In October the system
was not available for 3 weeks due to an upgrade and (2) in the
summer of 2002 it was decided to remove users who haven’t
logged on to the system. Hence the decline in registered users.
The following groups are dedicated to support the network and
knowledge sharing:
Steering Committee: Two senior people: one from the HSE
governance team and one from the Knowledge Sharing team.
They monitor from a distance what goes on in the network.
They meet 3-4 times per year and discuss with the Global
Coordinators to agree and approve the strategy and annual
plan of the network.
Global Coordinators. One admininistration person who does
housekeeping like registrations, assigning keywords and
moving old discussions and helps novice users. (20 h/wk).
One moderator who agrees and implements the strategy with
the steering committee, has regular contacts with Regional
Coordinators and Subject Matter Experts. They monitor the
postings and replies, requests further clarifications of fuzzy
questions and chases experts to provide answers (10-20
hours/week).
Hub coordinators. A network of some 20 HSE professionals
who work in regional operating units. They are in close
contact with the professionals in the field. Their role is to
activate (new) local staff to register, engage the professionals
to post queries and invite local experts to provide their
answers. Every 1.5 years they have a workshop to discuss long
term strategy and learn advanced options of the software. The
hub coordinators have a monthly telephone meeting to elect
the posting of the month and discuss progress of the annual
plan. (4 hours/week per person).
Subject matter experts. A network of 8 senior HSE
professionals who know what issues have been on the table in
the past years, and who has been involved in which detailed
HSE studies. Their prime role is not so much to provide the
final answer to all queries, but rather to get the experts on
details to provide their view and to annotate and comment the
solutions advocated by others where necessary (4-8
hours/week).
Working of the tool
There are basically two ways to use the system and share
knowledge with peers. One is to post a query and see what the
other members add as a reply. Sometimes the queries are
technical in nature, sometimes they are more aimed at policy
clarification or challenging the established policies. The other
way is to provide information without an apparent request: e.g.
a presentation, a story about a successful program, a Safety
Alert.
Every day a notification is sent by email to all registered users
with the subject lines of new postings. If any of these
members think they have (part of) the answer, they enter the
system using a hyperlink in the email and post their reply.
The subject lines of these replies are again included in next
day’s notification. Others can then add their view, either to the
original query or the reply. This way a discussion is held
within the community.
Characteristics of this process:
• The source of each posting is known, anonymous
participation is not possible. This leads to transparent
discussion and clear conclusions and the best professionals
will be recognized.
• a communis opinio emerges, which is highly likely to be
the best available solution. After 6-8 weeks no more
replies are added and the original poster makes a close out
reply. In this Close Out the original poster is supposed to
(1) acknowledge all the contributions he has received

3. SPE 86808 3
(either as reply or otherwise); (2) give an indication of the
value the replies have had in solving his problem; (3)
indicate what decision has been made and why.
• All discussions, including the Close Outs are stored in the
database for later reference.
The boundary between technical or policy queries, between
clarification and challenging policies or between ‘knowledge
sharing’ and queries is not always clear. Moreover, sometimes
a posting that starts as ‘sharing an Alert’ turns into a lively
discussion. A simple request for policy clarification turns into
a challenge of that or a related policy.
Taken together, Global Networking, or Knowledge Sharing is
a quid pro quo, a give and take game. There is no charging
involved. Every month a ‘posting of the month’ is elected,
where the criteria are newness, relevance, quality of question,
quality and number of replies.
The gains over traditional networking are:
1. increased size of pool of expertise. Because the pool of
expertise is much larger, the chances of finding the best
solution are much bigger. There is an increase in risk of
misunderstanding, but the full transparency and Subject
Matter Expert control this.
2. efficient. Traditional networking (visits, email, telephone
calls) are hampered by the small population that can be
reached: several dozen is a large crowd. A posting on the
HSE Global Network reaches 1500 colleagues in one go.
3. speed. When asked for the benefits of using the network,
it is rarely saving money, but more often the speed with
which a problem is solved. What would take weeks to do
on your own, or by traditional networking can be done in
days using the Global Network.
4. transparency. Traditional networking lacks transparency.
Who has been consulted, what advice has been given and
how have these been evaluated and amalgamated into the
final solution? This lack of transparency enables poor
advice and organisational politics.
How the HSE Global Network has done the first two
years
Figure 2 shows the number of new entries created and the
number of different users per month. The trend line indicates
a clear growth in the number of different users Figure 3 shows
the total number of logins and views per month. Again, the
trendl-ines indicate a steady growth.
A few side remarks are needed to put this picture in
perspective:
• Experience from other networks shows there is a
substantial seasonal cycle with fluctuations as much as
20%.
• The data from the period of June 2002 to Oct 2002 are
missing due to technical problems.
• The decline in August 2003- October 2003 is due to
performance problems: the system was overloaded and
could not handle the load. In October there was an outage
of 3 weeks for migration to new hardware and software.
Examples of posting of the month
At the monthly telephone meetings, the Hub Coordinators vote
for a Posting of the Month. Criteria for selection are:
relevance to the business, clarify of question, number of
replies, Table 4 lists examples of posting of the month, with
the number of replies and views.
Subject Replies Views
What guidelines should apply for wearing
jewelry guidelines offshore? (Norway, Nov.
2002)
8 120
Which HSE clauses should be included in
standard contracts? (Thailand, Jan 2003)
5 183
What are pros and cons of Thesis software
for developing Safety case? (Canada, March
2003)
11 316
What is the best practice of contractor
management and how do we train contract
holders? (Nigeria, May 2003)
10 241
Alert: Deaths induced by improper use of fall
protection harness. (Netherlands, July 2003)
0 541
We will have a contractor cutting some forest:
what standards, rules, procedures, training
etc. is available for use of chain saws?
(Gabon, Sept 2003)
9 95
Table. 4: Examples of postings that have been elected Posting
of the Month.
Discussion and conclusion
In spite of technical (overloaded system) and organisational
changes the HSE Global Network has grown organically,
almost without direction and with little resourcing. It
obviously fills a need with the HSE professionals out in the
field. Albeit hard to quantify, the business benefits from
sharing knowledge and solving problems using the network
have saved months of work.
The past two years have also taught us that:
1. Because of its organic nature, it cannot be directed in the
standard command-and-control manner. E.g. when
specific folders were introduced overnight for Health,
Safety and Environment related queries, the networking
slowed down for a couple of weeks. After six weeks the
activity level was back at the level where it was before the
change.
2. Below a critical mass, it doesn’t sustain. At least initially
a hub coordinator is essential to keep the Global Network
alive in the local organisation. If he does not perform his
role as ambassador/ salesmen/ helpdesk Global
Networking doesn’t catch on.
3. The Global Network enables the local single HSE
professional to provide world standard solutions to
problems they are faced with in their day to day practice.
See figure 4. The next section addresses why the HSE
Global Network is a success and how this particular form
of knowledge sharing fits in the bigger picture of
Knowledge Management.
Information technology and knowledge management
Information Technology revolutionises today's business world:
email, word processors, spreadsheets and internet are deeply
influencing the way organisations work. IT enables
globalisation and speeds-up business processes. Indeed, a

4. 4 SPE 86808
whole new (consulting) industry is arising around the
implementation of these tools, with its own language, tools
and advocates [Norris e.a., 2003]. The HSEGN is part of that
revolution. To explain the success of the HSE Global
Network. We need to define some terms first.
Figure 5 explains two key dimensions of information and
knowledge and their mutual relation. At the top we have
levels of information: at the left 'raw data', primary
observations: a picture, a measure, etc. As these pile up we
shift to the right: we learn to see depth, we detect trends: then
we reach the level of information. When we have sufficient of
information at hand, we can determine the underlying
(invisible) mechanisms: then we talk about knowledge. In this
hierarchy the explicitness and size (in bits or bytes) decrease.
The bottom half of the figure shows the corresponding user
side of the story. This running from novices (student), to
proficient (lecturer) to mastery (professor). Initially, a novice
doesn't know a lot and needs lots of explicit information to get
at the same level of understanding where a master could do
with a quick grasp. From this perspective the implicit
knowledge increases when going from left to right. Others call
this increasing context sensitivity or say the level of tacit
knowledge increases when going from left to right.
Going from left to right is "Induction". It means, going from
the specific to the generic. The return process is called
"Deduction", going from the generic to the specific. Figure 6
shows, what is called the Empirical Cycle of knowledge
production. It is taken from an introduction to the philosophy
of sciences [Koningsveld 1977].
The cycle in figure 6 is the heart of the scientific enterprise.
Universities and research laboratories are constantly producing
inductive knowledge as well as deductive knowledge. The
induction process –the left up arrow- starts with new
observations which these are used to (re)formulate empirical
laws and published in the scientific literature. Empirical laws
are reviewed and attempts are made to formulate theories in
which a set of proven empirical laws are put in a logical
perspective and underlying mechanisms are brought forward.
Theoretical laws or empirical laws are the starting point for
formulating hypotheses and these are tested by new
observations (the right hand down arrow). There is a constant
flow of information from theory to observations and vice
versa.
Scientific knowledge is by definition descriptive: it tells us
how and why things work the way they work. As engineers in
a business environment, we're primarily interested in
prescriptive knowledge: how can we make things work?
Nevertheless, the same cycle around a body of knowledge is in
place albeit less explicit and transparent. The empirical laws
are available in the heads of the seasoned professionals.
Occasionally these are transformed into Company or industry
standards, which are implemented in the form of project and
organisation plans and risk analyses. New data are collected
(1) everyday observations by professional in the field; (2)
through audits and inspections; (3) through incident reporting
and investigations and (4) HSE performance statistics.
The postings and discussions of the HSE Global Network are
basically the bottom half of the empirical cycle, in particular
the bottom left side. The bottom right side (challenging
existing standards and practices) takes sometimes place. The
challenge is to add the top half of the cycle: the senior HSE
professionals who make the standards and policies.
Conclusion and look ahead
The HSE Global Network has proven its value. With its
transparent and level playing field it has grown organically
and has proved its value to a steadily growing group of HSE
professionals in the field. The challenges for the coming 2
years are:
• To continue the growth and high level of participation of
professionals in the field.
• To add the top half of the empirical cycle: the senior HSE
professionals who make the standards and policies. At
the time of writing separate folders are created in the tool,
where these people can share their views and knowledge.
• To disclose and unlock the information captured in the
database for people new in the field. This will require
additional software in which traditional library tools like a
thesaurus and indexing are incorporated, as well as train
the end-user in how to use this.
References
Koningsveld H: Het verschijnsel wetenschap. Inleiding tot de
wetenschapsfilosofie (Science as a phenomenon. Introduction to
philosophy of sciences), Boom & Amsterdam Meppel NL,
1977. ISBN 90 6009 2384.
Norris, DM, e.a.: A revolution in knowledge sharing. Educause
Review, Sept-Oct 2003, p.14-26

5. SPE 86808 5
What I
know
What my
network
knows
What the
community
knows
Fig.1: What I know and what I suspect my network knows
Number of postings and users
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Nov-01 Feb-02 May-02 Sep-02 Dec-02 Mar-03 Jun-03 Oct-03 Jan-04
New postings or replies Different Users Linear (Different Users)
Fig.2: New postings and number of different users (with trend line) per month

6. 6 SPE 86808
Total Logins and Views
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
Jan-02
M
ar-02
M
ay-02
Jul-02
Sep-02
N
ov-02
Jan-03
M
ar-03
M
ay-03
Jul-03
Sep-03
Login Views Linear (Login) Linear (Views)
Fig. 3: Total number of logins and views with trend-lines
What the
community
knows
What my
network
knows
What I
know
`
Fig.4: How Global Network expands knowledge

7. SPE 86808 7
Implicit
(tacit)
Explicit
(size)
Data Information Knowledge
Novice Proficient Mastery
Fig. 5: Key terms in Knowledge Management
I. Observation data
IV. Hypotheses
II. Empirical laws
III Theoretical laws
Calculus + correspondence rules
Deduction:
confirmation
and prediction
(prescribing)
Induction:
explaining
and theorizing
Fig.6: Empirical cycle of knowledge production [Koningsveld 1977]