Successful management of information is crucial to effective operation of the JBI. Unlike traditional management applications that focus on physical aspects of a network, the information management staff toolkit must manage information for the functional end user. This requires insight into which information is required for a particular function and how that information is collected and transformed as needed by the end user. To ensure critical information is delivered to decision makers in a timely manner, policies controlling delivery of and access to information must be defined and enforced. To assist in administering the JBI, we envision user configurable visual representations of management information that can be directly manipulated by information staff. Effective visualization will enable high-level overviews of system activity along with detailed views of specific information paths. Staff members can use these visual representations to monitor and reconfigure information delivery policies and transformation paths. To be effective, these visual representations must accurately depict current status of frequently changing information. This requires that appropriate information be collected in real-time to update the visual presentations. We plan to use collaborative agents that monitor information paths and synthesize relevant information from JBI infrastructure applications.
Benefits: As a system integrator, Stanfield Systems, Inc. has encountered two general approaches for integrating disparate systems in government and commercial enterprises. The first of these involves purpose-built applications that bring together the required legacy applications in a manner that solves the immediate business requirement. Unfortunately, each purpose-built application requires significant development effort and dedicated maintenance staff to correct errors and adapt to new business requirements or technologies. At the other extreme is the big bang approach where all legacy resources are adapted to work with an enterprise integration system. Such solutions typically involve huge upfront costs and are constrained by the capabilities of the integration system. We contend that both of these approaches are inadequate for todays information technology environment in which business are required to rapidly adapt to frequently changing requirements while constrained by limited budgets. Our goal is to give the business user more control over their information. Our solution emphasizes visual presentation of information in a manner closely linked to the human cognitive process, thereby facilitating rapid comprehension of vast amounts of complex information. We provide direct access to information so that the end user can rapidly access, navigate, and configure this information in a manner that best suits the problem at hand. We support these capabilities with agile processes and application frameworks. We intend to offer government and commercial enterprises an integration solution consisting of an application framework and preconfigured toolkits tailored to vertical markets such as banking, retail, or government. System integrators will use a visual interface to select and configure components for information collection, integration, and visualization. Using the same visual interface, business users will customize and adapt their application to best fit their particular business function.
Keywords: information visualization, information management, application frameworks, Joint Battlespace Infosphere
