Adaptive Command and Collaboration within Network-Centric Operations using Insight from Contextualized Network Visualization, Analysis

The evolution of network-centric environments increasingly provides access to more data and collaborators relevant to decision making. Unfortunately, it also means the decision-maker increasingly needs to efficiently and effectively utilize that data in order to stay competitive. In network-centric warfare the consequences of less than optimal performance can be extremely serious. With the deployment of CPoF (Command Post of the Future), a C2 system that utilizes a variety of sensor data and supports collaborative problem solving through workspace sharing and VOIP communications, a fielded modern network-centric warfare environment exists. However, to achieve closer to optimal performance on command metrics, such as situation awareness, and time to decide or act, it is important that systems like CPoF not only capture relevant data and support collaboration. They must also include an adaptive command feedback loop that (1) has an interface which supports efficient identification of conditions warranting a response; (2) includes analysis tools to reduce the cognitive demand and expertise required to identify complex situations, and (3) has the ability to produce, and sometimes share, the results efficiently with support from user-managed automated feedback where applicable. We propose a tool we call C2insight to meet these needs.