Knowledge support cell makes preparations for Multinational Experiment 4

(PORTSMOUTH, Va. - Dec. 28, 2005) -- Knowledge support in a coalition environment was among the discussion topics as a multinational team of experts making final preparations for Multinational Experiment 4 (MNE4) met during the event's final planning conference earlier this month.

Scheduled for Feb. 20 - March 17, 2006, MNE4 will explore use of the full range of effects based operations (EBO) to influence the behavior of adversaries. While U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) from the United States is the overall lead for MNE4, coalition partners lead the specific concepts and processes being explored.

The knowledge support (KS) cell for MNE4 is a collaborative effort involving Germany, as MNE4's knowledge base development (KBD) lead, and Canada, the lead for knowledge management (KM).

"KS in MNE 4 is the vehicle which enables the effects based approach in distributed operations," said U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Timothy Millen, USJFCOM Joint Experimentation Directorate's experiment director for MNE4.

"The KS team's innovative approach combines emerging concepts with the creative application of established best practice to create the best possible information environment. These efforts will provide invaluable insights that will have a direct benefit to the future war fighter."

KBD is often misunderstood, according to Maj. Peter Hillermann of Germany's Bundeswehr Transformation Center. He's Germany's leader for KBD concept development in the experiment. He said it's not about building databases.

"There is a basic difference between KM and KBD," Hillermann said. "KM governs and facilitates moving and storing knowledge, while KBD is about context and the content of the knowledge base.

"We were tasked to develop the KBD concept after last year's MNE3, with the idea of helping commanders and their staffs gain a holistic understanding of the operational environment," Hillermann said. "KBD is one of the four functions of EBO. It's a continuous activity that provides the foundation that supports the planning, the execution and the assessment of EBO.

Lt. Cmdr. Leif Gundersen is part of Canada's KM team for MNE4. He said the KM concept for MNE4 goes beyond the technical aspects of information technology. The main concern is developing the practices and procedures that will allow a coalition to effectively organize, store and share knowledge.

"Canada took on the role of developing the KM plan for MNE4. KM in one sentence is to govern and facilitate the flow of information," Gundersen said.

"When you have knowledge available for people to use, how do they move it, where they store it? When they alter it, what do we do with those value-added products? We develop the rules that say what they can and can't do with it. That's all knowledge management. It's different from information security - it's the next step beyond it."

Gundersen said one of the themes of MNE4 is working in a collaborative environment. Information is compartmentalized in most government agencies. Someone may have information and is willing to share it, but no one else can get to it.

"What we're working toward in MNE4 is a collaborative environment where everybody can see virtually all of the information. You can pull information from wherever you want with very few restrictions. All the information is available to everybody all the time."

Gundersen said the KS cell has about 42 members, with a KM officer embedded in each of MNE4's main planning groups to ensure access when needed and to ensure the rules for KM are followed.

"There are approximately 131 players in the experiment, along with a much larger control staff," Gundersen said. "It's quite easy to lose valuable information, so there's a rigid discipline for how you handle knowledge. Our KM plan, together with its annexes, is 75 pages long. It was developed by Canada as part of a multi-national effort."

Both Hillermann and Gundersen said the KS cell's purpose is to support MNE4's goal - proving the concept of operations for coalition operations.

"It is not enough that pieces of information go to the commander's staff and gets pieced together there," Hillermann said. "The nature of knowledge today is too complex for that.

"To execute EBO, you have to understand the whole system. Better understanding leads to better execution."

What USJFCOM Does Transformation Force Provider Joint Trainer Integration & Requirements Experimentation Reserve & Command Support Summary

Learn More Multinational Experiment 4 (MNE4) Joint Experimentation Directorate Recent Multinational News Knowledge support cell makes preparations for Multinational Experiment 4 This article is the first in a series profiling several of the concepts under examination in the upcoming Multinational Experiment 4 (MNE4), an event which will bring together personnel from Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States in early 2006. Personnel from these countries, along with NATO, make up a multinational team of experts that recently helped prepare the Knowledge Support cell for MNE4.

"Our approach is that a complex system, such as Afghanistan, cannot be explained with its elements and attributes alone," he continued. "It's more than that. It's the relationship between those elements and attributes and their interdependencies. That's what we want to give a practical representation of to coalition commanders."
Lt. Cmdr. Leif Gundersen is part of Canada's KM team for MNE4. He said the KM concept for MNE4 goes beyond the technical aspects of information technology. The main concern is developing the practices and procedures that will allow a coalition to effectively organize, store and share knowledge.

"Canada took on the role of developing the KM plan for MNE4. KM in one sentence is to govern and facilitate the flow of information," Gundersen said.

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