Summary

CITMO 2002 provided the opportunity for people from the military, government, and commercial sectors to gather and discuss areas of mutual interest regarding the use of commercial information technology in a variety of military contexts. The focus was mainly on humanitarian relief operations and operations at relatively low level of conflict, but the discussions provided a basis for much more extensive uses of commercial technologies combined with military systems. This workshop proved to be extremely useful from a number of perspectives.

CITMO 2002 provided a venue for the exchange of ideas among people who had never before been in contact with one another. These new contacts included ones within the commercial sector and within the military sector as well as across the sectors. The presentations and discussions covered a wide range of topics and provided insights into concepts, approaches, products, and organizations that expanded perspectives and understanding of all the participants. The presentations included overviews and some detailed discussions that gave the participants an understanding of the emerging technologies as well as an appreciation for the specific capabilities and features that were needed in military systems. Commonality and important distinctions in the requirements of the military and commercial users were evident in these presentations. This allowed the individual working groups to deal with both the opportunities and issues related to the use of commercial and military information technologies to support a wide range of military operational needs.

The most important result of this workshop was the assembly of a group of experts from the various disciplines and organizations, which generated a number of informal collaborations that are certain to lead to cooperative efforts across military and commercial organizations. By the time that the formal meetings were concluded, several of these collaborations had already been established, and follow-on work was being discussed.

The delegates endorsed value of the CITMO effort and agreed that CITMO 2003 should be planned for next year.

Further details on the findings, conclusions, and recommendations generated at CITMO 2002 will be included in the formal proceedings to be disseminated by CD ROM to all the delegates. Others can purchase the proceedings by contacting IDG Europe as noted in the "Proceedings" page on this web site.

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