The challenge of knowledge management, particularly in non-hierarchical or virtual tasking, is familiar to all of us. The pace of change increases the need for effective knowledge management; the trend towards distributed leadership within and external to organizations makes it more difficult. The authors with Dr. Robert Neches (previously with University of Southern California and the Department of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering) envisioned development of a “Nationwide Ecosystem for Complex Engineering.” The “Ecosystem” intended to create a computing environment for virtual collaborative teams to respond to national challenges with engineering solutions in a common knowledge management environment.