| Purpose
and Terms of Reference The purpose of this workshop is to explore opportunities for the military to make use of commercial technologies, systems, and services. This entails an examination of the military needs in various situations and to compare the military vision and concepts for using technology to similar visions and concepts in the commercial sector. In particular, the emphases on global, mobile information services; on portable computing and virtual organizations; on network-centric, electronic commerce; on advanced intelligent software; and on information security and assurance appear to be common themes in both the military and commercial sectors. The first half of the workshop is devoted to overview presentations that can help orient our thoughts and set the stage for more detailed discussions in the working groups. These presentations should provide general understanding of objectives, concepts, and plans for next generation information systems and services in both the military and commercial sectors and should also provide insights into emerging technologies that can be applied. With this basis of shared understanding, the individual working groups can then attempt to identify opportunities for cooperative development, experimentation, and evaluation to make best use of the commercial products and services and also to identify where research and development can be vectored to support additional needs. Such research could be of benefit not only to the military but also to the commercial sector, since some areas such as mobile radio relay and information assurance may be able to transition from military research to commercial products. The collaboration should be thought of as a “two way street” where both the military and commercial sectors can benefit from collaborative research, development, and experimentation. The working groups should also attempt to identify areas where international standards can be evolved to meet a wide range of civil and military needs. The concept of a Global Information Infrastructure is common to both the military and civil sectors. It was first introduced on the military side in concepts such at the Global Grid and the US military vision of a Global Information Infrastructure. More recently, it has been defined as an objective under the auspices of the International Telecommunications Union, here also called the Global Information Infrastructure. Both the civil and military users also envision an information web or grid that allows interoperability across diverse technologies and user communities and that supports portable computing with services adapted to individual user needs. If an appropriate body of standards could be defined to satisfy the needs of both sectors, the cost effectiveness is obvious. Two sets of working groups are defined. Each will be given half a day for its deliberations, during which time they should attempt to develop system level concepts for applying commercial technology to the military concepts and requirements. They should also identify areas where additional research and development would be needed to support the military need or to adapt military research to a commercial application. The first set of working groups addresses technologies, as indicated in the agenda. These working groups should discuss the operational capability need and to suggest ways that commercial systems or services can meet those needs or can augment military systems. The second set of working groups addresses operational and implementation factors and should deal with concerns for building and using these systems as part of an evolving architecture and for additional research and development that is needed. The workshop will be a success if we can develop a basis for collaboration to develop future concepts and to suggest near to mid term opportunities and approaches to evaluate and use the technologies that are available. We have a unique opportunity to provide very useful insights and recommendations with this group of experts from a wide variety of organizations and from several nations at the forefront of information technology. The following sections provide definitions, samples of operational situations, and general guidance for the working groups. |