The U.S. Air Force has several requirements for information systems to provide Global Awareness, Dynamic Planning and Execution, and Global Information Exchange. A key common underlying issue is the need to link remotely located people or groups of people together, share information or data in a meaningful context, such that they can interact, collaborate, or take action in some fashion. While several distinct solutions can be developed to address these requirements, a more innovative approach would be to attack the two key needs of a flexible, customizable interactive interface and an information delivery system with a broad reach. Such a solution can even be more affordable than dedicated solutions if advantage is taken of trends in commercial practices. SplashNote Systems is developing an innovative collaboration system with these objectives in mind. It has an application platform, which allows a project manager to quickly develop and deploy collaborative applications without worrying about the underlying technology. And it provides a broad reach by leveraging common messaging channels such as email. The key is that the message inbox is converted into an interactive and dynamic interface that essentially links all participants together in a shared data environment. Such a system would allow Air Force personnel to stay apprised of the latest information and to interact with each other with no more than a message address. SplashNote will be compatible with most email client in the marketplace, with further plans for other messaging devices such as PDA and wireless WAP phones.
Keywords: collaboration, application platform, virtual team, dynamic interactive interface, remote monitoring, distributed decision-making, global information exchange, global awareness
