| The DOD Net-centric strategy seeks to insure that all data are visible, available, and useable when needed and where needed. Data visibility and usefulness are dependent on the development of systems and applications that are network enabled and have the capability to present information in a coherent manner. The current largely paper-driven procedures for command post and crisis management activities must give way to more automated processes that allow data to be automatically ingested from many sources available on the network. Moreover, data at the local level needs to be available on the network to other information consumers. Recently, the USAF 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force Base installed a low-cost solution for automating Command Post and Battle Staff operations. The system, named Shark Command and Control System (SCCS), is based on WebEOC™, a commercial product created and marketed for emergency operations centers by ESi, Inc. WebEOC was easily adapted to the role of daily command post operations and was already suitable for emergency/crisis management operations. The capabilities provided by WebEOC are significantly enhanced by the Knowledge Management Framework (KMF), based on BEA’s AquaLogic Data Services Platform™ and Modus Operandi’s Wave™ product. The KMF allows SCCS to display federated data from a wide variety of data sources, including relational databases and XML documents. The KMF provides a semantic layer on top of the federated data to allow queries to return information based on a domain model that includes classes and relationships between classes. This has allowed SCCS to display data from sources that were formerly “silos” of information. In turn, data accumulated in SCCS is made available to other information consumers via the KMF. This paper describes SCCS and KMF capabilities and looks forward to how command posts can be interconnected and access federated data. |
| Mr. Robert Price is Director of Product Services at Modus Operandi, Inc. He has twenty years of experience in software product development and engineering leadership. Previously, he worked at Seranin Software, Inc. where he was part of a team that developed software for providing business process metrics. Prior to Seranin, Mr. Price served as Chief Architect at GE-Railway Systems where he developed the architecture for a Computer Aided Dispatch system and supervised its implementation. Mr. Price served as an Engineering Manager at Harris Controls Division where he helped develop Energy Management Systems featuring supervisory control and data acquisition for electric utilities. Mr. Price graduated from Auburn University in 1985 with a BS in Computer Science.
Timothy Beltz is Manager, Special Projects & Western Region Office at Esi Acquisition,Inc. Mr.Beltz has been responsible for engineering, installing, and maintaining voice and data communications networks, workstations, servers, video and automation equipment in Local, State, and Federal Government Emergency Operations Centers. Mr. Beltz is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and previously served as an officer in the U.S. Army Signal Corp. Mr.Beltz has a BA from Stephen F. Austin State University.
2Lt Nathan McKinnon is a member of the 45th Space Wing Communication Squadron. Lt. Nathan has worked extensively with military communications systems and has experience in designing, implementing,and certifying systems in a military environment. |