Soldiers obtain mission-critical knowledge

The Army's Battle Command Knowledge System (BCKS,) has deployed MarkLogic Server from Mark Logic to support knowledge management and information sharing efforts. The BCKS' solution is called the Warrior Knowledge Base (WKB).

With its technology, Mark Logic reports in a recent press release, soldiers can rapidly discover, access and use content. They can build virtual documents, pulling together the most relevant information from many search results such as lessons learned, reports and articles written by soldiers, civilians and contractors. The technology helps the experienced soldier share information with the less experienced, according to Mark Logic. Further, it reports, rapid knowledge transfer enables warfighters to respond to changing conditions and apply new tactics faster than the enemy.

"Connecting our 90,000-plus members with relevant documents in the WKB repository within seconds, and then sharing that content with other forum members, is our goal," says Mark Uhart, WKB integrator and knowledge management consultant. "The WKB shows promising capabilities that have already demonstrated great utility."

Uhart continues, "For example, doctrinal content in Army field manuals published in English-Arabic (used in Iraq) or English-Pushto (used in Afghanistan) can be difficult to discover, access and understand using a traditional database approach. The file sizes are also very large, which could make finding relevant content a time-consuming task on a low-bandwidth network. The metadata assigned to these types of documents, and the fact that content can be discovered and viewed page-by-page without having to download the file, allows discovery and use of only the relevant content. BCKS has the capability to store and manage content in 37 different languages."

The Army's Battle Command Knowledge System is a major subordinate organization of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.