Knowport: Knowledge-Access Portal for Brigade Combat Team and other Knowledge Warriors

Brigade Combat Team (BCT) units are expected to accomplish complex, multidimensional tasks in a confusing, often unpredictable environment. To this end, the knowledge warriors within the BCT need to build a knowledge base whose contents can be accessedand exploited as necessary to achieve the requisite situation understanding. Situation understanding, in this context, is a measure of the degree to which a knowledge warrior is aware of and understands the significance of all factors (i.e., METT-T, localevents, regional non-military factors) that typically influence the outcome of operations within an asymmetric environment. The goal of this overall effort is to develop, demonstrate, and transition an innovative knowledge access portal for improvedCognitive Readiness and Knowledge-based decisionmaking on the part of BCTs. Phase I of the effort will study and develop an early prototype of a knowledge portal capable of: a) integrating, personalizing, and optimally displaying both structured andunstructured content from diverse sources such as personal knowledge bases, battlefield information, web, digital libraries, and military archives; and b) interacting with knowledge warriors while providing decision support wherever possible. Theinformation sources will cover CONUS, non-military regional factors, and local variables that all contribute to enhanced situation understanding and decisionmaking.Informed decisionmaking and operating and support cost reduction through just-in-timeknowledge delivery and distance learning. Potential commercial applications of the R&D include distributed supply management, distributed web-based learning, airline contingency management, mid-office operations management, front-end to ERP/CRM systems.