Collaboration technology for the warfighter

Research efforts to date and current plans for introducing innovative collaboration technology into the military decision-making process are described and discussed. Our efforts have been focusing on developing an integrated system using an existing combat information processor (CIP) and developing applications requiring CIP services provided by internal CIP servers. Communicating and sharing data with the CIP is a technical challenge for collaborating systems. Preliminary results from early experiments with the CIP indicate that we need more robust communication architecture for the collaboration tool and a way to better manage collaborating applications. We have acquired and successfully installed a CIP development kit and developed experimental applications interfacing with one of the CIP servers to acquire a better understanding of the functionality of the CIP