Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) Focus Area

OBJECTIVE

FOSTER THE IMPROVEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT SAME TIME/SAME PLACE AND DIFFERENT TIME/DIFFERENT PLACE COOPERATIVE WORK.

Budget constraints within the militaries and ECMC members around the world in recent times have forced drastic personnel reductions and the radical consolidation of organizations and functions. These factors have combined to require a shortening of timelines for decision-making, a heightened demand for the sharing of assets, and increased coordination within each military and among coalition partners. They have also focused new attention on the importance of team building and the flexible use of appropriately skilled personnel. In parallel with these budget constraints, modern warfare has necessitated a greater emphasis on joint and coalition operations. In this atmosphere, CSCW tools that enable physically separated people to work together effectively have gained new significance.

Examples of such need exist across the C4I domain, including:

• Emphasis on joint and coalition operations with teaming among multinational forces (crossing geographical, functional and organizational boundaries) in the planning, support and execution of operations, requiring coordination, sharing of information, tools among strategists, planners, experts in special fields as well as operators in the field;
• Increasing demand for national support to war fighters in the field in providing specialized expertise, tailored information, and timely delivery (whether in peacetime, crisis, or war);
• Capability for national resources to support multiple operations simultaneously, without the necessity of being deployed with any operation but to perform them from home base; and,
• Experimentation of emerging concepts such as split operations: the ability to deploy smaller, focused forces to forward locations while retaining a large cadre of expertise in the rear location, where the entire operation is executed as a single distributed team.

Problem Space

Most of today's CSCW tools/capabilities are largely un-integrated and do not easily support synchronous (same time-different place) work. Most of today's tools do not easily support different type of users - broadband vs. narrowband, wireless and networked.

Statement of Need

There exists a need to provide (across multiple platforms, bandwidths, and communication technologies):

• Same time/same place: group decision support, meeting facilitation;
• Same time/different places: audio/video conferencing, shared whiteboards, shared applications;
• Different times/same place: team rooms, shared memory, information sharing, coordination tools; and,
• Different times/different places: e-mail, discussion/bulletin boards, group authoring, and workflow.

Relation to other OMG activity

Not identified at this time.

C4I DTF Actions

Develop RFI in order to baseline existing projects and activities (within and outside OMG).

Identify key collaboration gaps.