Battle Command Knowledge System
Encyclopedia
To better serve the US Army soldier, battle command knowledge systems (BCKS) was subsumed by Center for Lessons Learned (CALL), Army Operational Knowledge Management (AOKM) Proponent and the Mission Command Center of Excellence (McCoE), Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
The battle command knowledge system (BCKS) is the change agent for implementing knowledge management
(KM) capabilities
into the training and military operations of the United States Army
. BCKS is headquartered at the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center
at Fort Leavenworth KS. People, processes
, and technology are the three
components to KM. BCKS is responsible for developing the dynamic operational and social processes
for transferring relevant
knowledge
from those who know to those who need to know.
to foster
collaboration
among Soldiers and Units to share
expertise and experience; facilitate leader development and
intuitive
decision-making; and support the development of organizations and team
s.
BCKS objectives are to:
. Army Soldiers
and civilians connect to share
explicit
and tacit knowledge
to solve problems, share
best practice
s and develop their
professional skills. Leaders and staff members have access to others with similar duty positions and challenges. Functional
specialists and those interested in a particular specialized domain gather virtually in focused forums.
Army Professional Forums were informally implemented by passionate volunteers who wanted to share
their knowledge
and
experience
with their peers in order to improve their profession. CompanyCommand.com and Platoon Leader were formally
adopted by the U. S. Army in 2002. The Battle Command Knowledge System Professional Forums were formed in September 2004 to
provide structure to this innovative knowledge
sharing process. Later, the NCOTeam.org was also supported and adopted by
BCKS.
By September 2004, there were four formal U. S. Army Professional Forums with approximately 20,000 members. Since that time,
the U. S. Army has grown their Professional Forums into one of the premier collaboration instruments in the U. S. Government
with 46 Professional Forums supporting Active and Reserve forces as well as the National Guard. The Professional Forums
support Soldiers around the world, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. These collaboration tools have been widely accepted
across the entire enterprise structure, with membership ranging from General Officer to Private, all being able to share
their unique knowledge
and experience
with others on the Professional Forum without regard to rank or position. Army Professional Forums
currently have over 130,000 members and are growing at a rate of approximately 1,900 new members per month mainly by word of
mouth through a grass-roots effort.
s (NCOs) can share their thoughts, ideas and, most of all, their knowledge and experience. NCOs engage in ongoing professional conversations about improving leadership skills, sharing Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs), assisting in the Non-commissioned Officers Education System (NCOES), and reducing the learning curve in the Army's high pace environment. Members, organizations, and agencies are using NCO Net as a connecting layer to collaborate and share knowledge and their expertise with others in their profession around the global in real time.
NCO Net maintains the most current knowledge deemed important to our NCOs by our NCOs. It links NCOs with experience in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and those that are preparing for deployment. This transfer of knowledge builds combat ready teams, improves Army units, raises the effectiveness of NCOs in their current and future positions, and advances the Army collaboration process. When the knowledge is not available on a particular topic, members simply post a question in the appropriate discussion area to engage their colleagues and start the knowledge sharing process. This exchange of knowledge flows between the highest ranking officers to the lowest ranking NCOs across the operating and generating force in the total active, Reserve, and National Guard Army.
NCO Net uses the digital story (i.e.; Trouble at Checkpoint 4) philosophy that everyone is a teacher and learner. As members view this digital story and provide input, Soldiers and leaders contribute their perspective of training requirements and teachable points of view to improve NCO leadership, Soldier, and civilian relationships. This digital story is a change in the type of training aids provided for Soldiers and their leaders. It stimulates dialogue, debate, and self awareness.
In response to the highly dynamic and interactive vignette, “Trouble at Checkpoint 4,” NCOs of all ranks shared their insights and recommendations confronting the young NCO (SGT Ash) in the avatar based video. This vignette prompted over 6,000 hits from 6 continents in the first 48 hours and generated 300 substantive comments received from Sergeants to Sergeants Major located in four continents. NCOs identified:
Junior NCOs made most of these recommendations, demonstrating the maturity and professionalism of the Army’s NCO Corps.
Iraq and Afghanistan experienced NCOs share the most current and relevant insights, experiences, and lessons quickly through the forum discussions.
NCOs recently discussed “Virtual Manual – A Good Idea.” They talked about why virtual field manuals (FMs) and other documents would be extremely useful. These kinds of conversations are the voice of the Soldiers to doctrine writers and Army leaders as they develop processes and procedures.
NCO Net impacts current Army operations. “Battle Focused Combat and Deployment” is a topic area where Corporals to Command Sergeants Major ask questions, make comments, or find answers to their questions about combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This discussion area on NCO Net is available 24/7 and 365 days to NCO Net members stationed around the world. Combat operation topics exhibiting the rapid transfer and viral effects of professional forums include:
exploring his personal computer and modem with friends. They were dabbling with PCs and the new telecommunication capability – Bulletin Boards Systems (BBS's). With a dial up modem hosted in his house and a single phone line, NCOs could log onto the “The Old Soldiers BBS” with a local Ft. Knox KY number. In the earliest days, only one person at a time could connect to the BBS – an era before the internet, before Google, and before military documents were easily accessed. It was also a time where long distance costs were charged. But once dialed in, the NCO would find relevant files and time saver programs for Soldiers, many of them provided by the Command and Control Microcomputer Users Group
(C2MUG) at Ft Leavenworth, KS. Users could also log on daily to read and respond to postings in the threaded discussions. The NCO site was the manual Yahoo search engine for Army NCOs.
By 1997 the BBS went away. CSM Elder continued to explore technology and began building the first NCO website on Geocities. Here the focus began to expand with how the internet could help Soldiers in their day to day productivity. His buddies gave feedback on what would be beneficial. The site began to host Soldier related programs. NCOs would go to the site to share Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) or Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs). But a percentage of them stayed and interactively participated in the discussions. These highly motivated and interested NCOs became the Peer Mentors who helped other NCOs. The Peer Mentors seldom met in person. The Peer Mentors became a family, they argued, laughed and most of all learned from each other. They would physically call other NCOs to help them solve their problems. The Peer Mentors were all volunteers who just wanted to make things better for the other NCOs. Later the site moved which required the purchase of an URL and software registrations. CSM Elder purchased this software out of his pocket. Anything that would help NCOs of today to stay relevant was provided by CSM Elder and his "merry band" of misfits.
CSM Elder emphasized that there was a gap in knowledge among the enlisted ranks. He created the NCO site to fill this void. The NCO site provided tools and discussions on how to use them, how to find what they needed, and how to digest it all. It was all about what to do and how to do your job. As friends told friends, the site became popular. At one point, the NCO site was used by many NCOs in the Army. Dedicated and passionate volunteers gave their personal time and resources to develop, grow, and make the NCO site relevant. Each NCO had a full time day job. It was a team effort with many unsung heroes. See comments about the usefulness of the NCO Site. On August 28, 2003, Cmd Sgt Maj. Dan Elder was awarded the first-ever AKM Pioneer Award by the US Army Chief Information Officer.
In October 2005 the NCO site migrated at the US Army Sergeants Major Academy into the Battle Command Knowledge System. Today the NCO Net is a composite of all its very successful predecessors. NCO Net has evolved into a global system of professional forums, knowledge centers, and supporting toolkits for sharing information and experiences, problems solving, improving operational performance and support of the Non-commissioned Officers Education System (NCOES). Most of the original Peer Mentors continue to volunteer and make NCO Net work. For more details of the history of the NCO sites please go to NCO history and timeline.
In addition to platform and leadership changes, NCO Net has two professional forum facilitators who coordinated the transition of the NCO Team site into the NCO Net, brought the volunteer NCO Team Facilitators (formally known as the Peer Mentors) on-board, integrated the NCO Net into the U.S. Army Sergeant Major Academy (USASMA) courses, and consistently espoused the benefits of NCO Net to the Senior NCO Leadership of the Army. Given the inheritance of the NCO team and the leadership, persistence and hard work, NCO Net continues to provide a collaborative capability allowing NCOs from across the Army to rapidly get answers to questions and provide peer to peer discussions of important issues to the Army and the NCO Corps.
This curriculum provides the training and education necessary for the Battle Command Knowledge Management (BCKM ) cell to
understand and practice the employment of KM-BCKM activities, principles, processes, techniques, and tools.
This 18–20 hour training curriculum consists of the following modules:
plans can be developed and successfully executed. Doctrine provides a common language and defines the terms used in the
profession. Doctrine presents the fundamental principles that guide the employment of forces and facilitates organizing
forces tailoring for specific operation.
BCKS helped develop the first Army KM doctrine. Working in partnership with the Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate (CADD),
BCKS wrote a field manual interim (FMI) 6-01.1 “The Battle Command Knowledge Management Cell”. This collaborative effort
included direct input from Soldiers in the field. FMI 6-01.1 will serve as the Army’s authoritative source for the Battle
Command Knowledge Management Cell (BCKM). It will serve as the standard reference for understanding the role of knowledge
management in operations. Although the FMI 6-01.1 focuses on the modular division BCKM cell, it will be applicable from
brigade to corps level. FMI 6-01.1 will have an effective lifespan of two years from publication at which time a regular FM
is planned to supersede it. BCKS is the primary coordinator and author of the initial draft of this FMI.
Topics included in the FMI are: Definitions, types of knowledge, KM principles, spectrum of KM strategy, knowledge
lifecycles, and relationship of KM with Battle Command, KM in ARFORGEN, BCKM cell functions, duties, and responsibilities, KM
processes, case studies, and examples.
s and portals
of knowledge artifacts
throughout the United States Department of Defense, as
well as access restrictions placed on them by community/ forums leaders, it is difficult for Soldiers to quickly find and
apply relevant information in support of their combat mission. The Battle Command Knowledge System (BCKS) has provided the
resources and leadership
to implement the Warrior Knowledge base (WKB), an online repository of data assets/artifacts
and
platform for conducting federated search
es across domains. The BCKS vision is to make it easy for Soldiers to find trusted
data assets from portals and domains throughout the Army and the DoD, so information can be captured, repurposed and shared
within minutes. Most repositories are not structured to support semantic searches of their content, only searches of indexed
information, which hinders discovery
. They cannot provide the real-time linkage between the data asset and the forum where
it is being discussed and validated. The BCKS leadership
and vision brings industry-leading search and content management
technology to Soldiers worldwide.
engineering is the KM discipline that applies storytelling
to the purposes of the organization. The NCO Net pilot
is the cornerstone of Army narrative engineering, and is designed to bring storytelling
to bear for: knowledge creation,
sharing and exploitation; building and integrating individual, team and organizational expertise; leader development and
leadership
; a “springboard” for change; and situational awareness
, as a way to organize and articulate perception,
interpretation and actionable prediction in an operational environment. The NCO Net is a foundational Army community of
practice, but the narrative engineering pilot has implications across the entire breadth and depth of military operations,
learning
, and innovation
. The NCO Net pilot focuses on a road to competency in actionable cultural awareness using digital stories
and face-to-face
stories, both supported by a Narrative Wizard.
Iraq. The online NCO facilitator led discussion with context specific thought questions on how the Soldiers could handle the
situation. Over 220 comments from junior to senior ranks were posted within first 48 hours. This video and comments have
been viewed over 6,000 times in US, Europe, and Iraq. Some of the comments received were:
Read more about Check Point 4 in the May 2007 issue, Army Magazine
|-
| Adaptive
|| Facilitation
|| Process Improvement
|-
| Accessibility
|| Federated Search
||
Professional Forums
|-
| Best Practice
|| Indexed Searches
||
Rapid Knowledge Transfer Through BCKS
|-
| Business Process
|| Informal Learning
|| Schema
|-
| Change Agent
|| Innovation
|| Simulations
|-
| Collaboration
|| Interactive Video
|| Situational Awareness
|-
| Collaborative Software
|| Intuition
|| Scenario
|-
| Communities of Practice (COPs) || Knowledge
|| Semantic Web
|-
| Content Management
|| Knowledge Management
|| Sensemaking
|-
| Content Management Systems || Knowledge Transfer
||
Share
|-
| Decision Making
|| Leadership
|| Social Action
|-
| Digital Asset Management
|| Learning
|| Social Learning
|-
| Digital Storytelling
|| Learning Organization
||
Tacit Knowledge
|-
| Discovery
|| Meta Tag
|| Taxonomy
|-
| Enterprise Content Management
|| Military Operations ||
Team
|-
| Experience
|| Narrative
|| Validation
|-
| Experiential Knowledge
|| Organizational Development ||
The battle command knowledge system (BCKS) is the change agent for implementing knowledge management
Knowledge management
Knowledge management comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences...
(KM) capabilities
into the training and military operations of the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. BCKS is headquartered at the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center
U.S. Army Combined Arms Center
The U.S. Army Combined Arms Center is located at Fort Leavenworth and provides leadership and supervision for leader development and professional military and civilian education; institutional and collective training; functional training; training support; battle command; doctrine; lessons learned...
at Fort Leavenworth KS. People, processes
Business process
A business process or business method is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product for a particular customer or customers...
, and technology are the three
components to KM. BCKS is responsible for developing the dynamic operational and social processes
Business process
A business process or business method is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product for a particular customer or customers...
for transferring relevant
knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
from those who know to those who need to know.
BCKS mission statement
The BCKS mission is to support the generation, application, management, and exploitation of Army knowledgeKnowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
to foster
collaboration
Collaboration
Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal. It is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals, — for example, an intriguing endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing...
among Soldiers and Units to share
Sharing
Sharing the joint use of a resource or space. In its narrow sense, it refers to joint or alternating use of an inherently finite good, such as a common pasture or a shared residence. It is also the process of dividing and distributing. Apart from obvious instances, which we can observe in human...
expertise and experience; facilitate leader development and
intuitive
Intuition (knowledge)
Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason. "The word 'intuition' comes from the Latin word 'intueri', which is often roughly translated as meaning 'to look inside'’ or 'to contemplate'." Intuition provides us with beliefs that we cannot necessarily justify...
decision-making; and support the development of organizations and team
Team
A team comprises a group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team...
s.
BCKS objectives are to:
- enhance battle command
- facilitateFacilitationThe term facilitation is broadly used to describe any activity which makes tasks for others easy. For example:* Facilitation is used in business and organizational settings to ensure the designing and running of successful meetings....
exchange of knowledgeKnowledgeKnowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject... - foster leader development
- support doctrine development
- support lessons learned
- support training
- enhance professional education
Effects of battle command knowledge management
- Improved situational understanding
- Improved common operational picture
- Faster transition cycles between units
- Quickens transfer of expertise and experienceExperienceExperience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
- Improved decision makingDecision makingDecision making can be regarded as the mental processes resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.- Overview :Human performance in decision terms...
process - Provide reach back capability
- Ensure knowledgeKnowledgeKnowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
is captured, stored and sharedSharingSharing the joint use of a resource or space. In its narrow sense, it refers to joint or alternating use of an inherently finite good, such as a common pasture or a shared residence. It is also the process of dividing and distributing. Apart from obvious instances, which we can observe in human... - ShareSharingSharing the joint use of a resource or space. In its narrow sense, it refers to joint or alternating use of an inherently finite good, such as a common pasture or a shared residence. It is also the process of dividing and distributing. Apart from obvious instances, which we can observe in human...
lessons learned and TTPs across enterprise - Break knowledgeKnowledgeKnowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
“stovepipes” - Influence doctrine development cycle
- Produces agile and adaptiveAdaptive behaviorAdaptive behavior is a type of behavior that is used to adjust to another type of behavior or situation. This is often characterized by a kind of behavior that allows an individual to change an unconstructive or disruptive behavior to something more constructive. These behaviors are most often...
leaders & Soldiers
BCKS current initiatives include
- KM Forums
- KM Training
- KM Doctrine
- Multi-repository search engine
- Digital StorytellingDigital storytellingDigital storytelling refers to a short form of digital film-making that allows everyday people to share aspects of their life story."Digital storytelling" is a relatively new term which describes the new practice of ordinary people who use digital tools to tell their 'story'...
and Interactive VideoInteractive videoThe term interactive video usually refers to a technique used to blend interaction and linear film or video.-Interactive video on broadband:Since 2005, interactive video has increased online as the result a number of factors including:...
Development
KM forums
BCKS provides a social network of facilitated professional forums that provide a foundation for knowledge transferKnowledge transfer
Knowledge transfer in the fields of organizational development and organizational learning is the practical problem of transferring knowledge from one part of the organization to another part of the organization. Like Knowledge Management, Knowledge transfer seeks to organize, create, capture or...
. Army Soldiers
and civilians connect to share
Sharing
Sharing the joint use of a resource or space. In its narrow sense, it refers to joint or alternating use of an inherently finite good, such as a common pasture or a shared residence. It is also the process of dividing and distributing. Apart from obvious instances, which we can observe in human...
explicit
Explicit knowledge
Explicit knowledge is knowledge that has been or can be articulated, codified, and stored in certain media. It can be readily transmitted to others. The information contained in encyclopedias are good examples of explicit knowledge....
and tacit knowledge
Tacit knowledge
Tacit knowledge is knowledge that is difficult to transfer to another person by means of writing it down or verbalising it. For example, stating to someone that London is in the United Kingdom is a piece of explicit knowledge that can be written down, transmitted, and understood by a recipient...
to solve problems, share
Sharing
Sharing the joint use of a resource or space. In its narrow sense, it refers to joint or alternating use of an inherently finite good, such as a common pasture or a shared residence. It is also the process of dividing and distributing. Apart from obvious instances, which we can observe in human...
best practice
Best practice
A best practice is a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark...
s and develop their
professional skills. Leaders and staff members have access to others with similar duty positions and challenges. Functional
specialists and those interested in a particular specialized domain gather virtually in focused forums.
Army Professional Forums were informally implemented by passionate volunteers who wanted to share
Sharing
Sharing the joint use of a resource or space. In its narrow sense, it refers to joint or alternating use of an inherently finite good, such as a common pasture or a shared residence. It is also the process of dividing and distributing. Apart from obvious instances, which we can observe in human...
their knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
and
experience
Experience
Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
with their peers in order to improve their profession. CompanyCommand.com and Platoon Leader were formally
adopted by the U. S. Army in 2002. The Battle Command Knowledge System Professional Forums were formed in September 2004 to
provide structure to this innovative knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
sharing process. Later, the NCOTeam.org was also supported and adopted by
BCKS.
By September 2004, there were four formal U. S. Army Professional Forums with approximately 20,000 members. Since that time,
the U. S. Army has grown their Professional Forums into one of the premier collaboration instruments in the U. S. Government
with 46 Professional Forums supporting Active and Reserve forces as well as the National Guard. The Professional Forums
support Soldiers around the world, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. These collaboration tools have been widely accepted
across the entire enterprise structure, with membership ranging from General Officer to Private, all being able to share
Sharing
Sharing the joint use of a resource or space. In its narrow sense, it refers to joint or alternating use of an inherently finite good, such as a common pasture or a shared residence. It is also the process of dividing and distributing. Apart from obvious instances, which we can observe in human...
their unique knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
and experience
Experience
Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
with others on the Professional Forum without regard to rank or position. Army Professional Forums
currently have over 130,000 members and are growing at a rate of approximately 1,900 new members per month mainly by word of
mouth through a grass-roots effort.
By the Numbers
- More than 50 BCKS Forums with approximately 162,000 accounts
- 4 West Point Forums with 17,000 accounts
- BCKS Growth = 3,000 per month
- West Point Growth = 400 per month
- Total Growth = 3,400 per month
- 83,000 unique visitors per month
- 2,800 unique visitors per day
Non-commissioned Officers Professional Forum
NCO Net is one of the BCKS professional forums (PFs) and a fundamental component of BCKS Leadership and Leader Development Knowledge Network. It is a place where all non-commissioned officerNon-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...
s (NCOs) can share their thoughts, ideas and, most of all, their knowledge and experience. NCOs engage in ongoing professional conversations about improving leadership skills, sharing Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs), assisting in the Non-commissioned Officers Education System (NCOES), and reducing the learning curve in the Army's high pace environment. Members, organizations, and agencies are using NCO Net as a connecting layer to collaborate and share knowledge and their expertise with others in their profession around the global in real time.
NCO Net maintains the most current knowledge deemed important to our NCOs by our NCOs. It links NCOs with experience in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and those that are preparing for deployment. This transfer of knowledge builds combat ready teams, improves Army units, raises the effectiveness of NCOs in their current and future positions, and advances the Army collaboration process. When the knowledge is not available on a particular topic, members simply post a question in the appropriate discussion area to engage their colleagues and start the knowledge sharing process. This exchange of knowledge flows between the highest ranking officers to the lowest ranking NCOs across the operating and generating force in the total active, Reserve, and National Guard Army.
NCO Net uses the digital story (i.e.; Trouble at Checkpoint 4) philosophy that everyone is a teacher and learner. As members view this digital story and provide input, Soldiers and leaders contribute their perspective of training requirements and teachable points of view to improve NCO leadership, Soldier, and civilian relationships. This digital story is a change in the type of training aids provided for Soldiers and their leaders. It stimulates dialogue, debate, and self awareness.
In response to the highly dynamic and interactive vignette, “Trouble at Checkpoint 4,” NCOs of all ranks shared their insights and recommendations confronting the young NCO (SGT Ash) in the avatar based video. This vignette prompted over 6,000 hits from 6 continents in the first 48 hours and generated 300 substantive comments received from Sergeants to Sergeants Major located in four continents. NCOs identified:
-
- training and leadership shortcomings exhibited by SGT Ash
- violation of sound tactical doctrine at the Traffic Control Post (TCP)
- the importance of cultural awareness in dealing with Iraqis.
Junior NCOs made most of these recommendations, demonstrating the maturity and professionalism of the Army’s NCO Corps.
NCO NET an Integral Cornerstone in the BCKS Network of Networks
NCO Net expands its reach beyond its community of professional NCOs to the entire Army as a member of the Leadership and Leadership Development Knowledge Network (LLDKN) of the BCKS. The LLDKN contains several Professional Forums including Company Command, Platoon Leader Net, Warrant Officer Net, Family Readiness Group Net, and S3-XO Net. By passing relevant knowledge and discussions between the forums in the network, each community reaps the benefits of the collective knowledge of the others. As one of the Army’s first Professional Forums and one of its most active, the NCO Net community plays a pivotal role in shaping the knowledge shared in the LLDKN.NCO Net Wins Army Knowledge Award 2007
Recently NCO Net won the Army Knowledge Award for the Knowledge Transformation Initiative category at the Army’s 2007 LandWarNet Conference in Fort Lauderdale FL. The Army’s Chief Information Office/G6 selected NCO Net for its capabilities in enhancing collaborative processes that improve warfighter or organizational decision-decision-making, learning and development as well as incorporate the use of technology and re-engineering to achieve process transformation, like improving operational effectiveness and the flow of products, services and knowledge for the user in real time. See The Fort Leavenworth Lamp for more details.NCO Net Current Discussion Topics
NCO Net provides advice and guidance for new platoon sergeants, first sergeants, Sergeants Major (SGM) and Command Sergeants Major (CSMs) in their new positions.Iraq and Afghanistan experienced NCOs share the most current and relevant insights, experiences, and lessons quickly through the forum discussions.
NCOs recently discussed “Virtual Manual – A Good Idea.” They talked about why virtual field manuals (FMs) and other documents would be extremely useful. These kinds of conversations are the voice of the Soldiers to doctrine writers and Army leaders as they develop processes and procedures.
NCO Net impacts current Army operations. “Battle Focused Combat and Deployment” is a topic area where Corporals to Command Sergeants Major ask questions, make comments, or find answers to their questions about combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This discussion area on NCO Net is available 24/7 and 365 days to NCO Net members stationed around the world. Combat operation topics exhibiting the rapid transfer and viral effects of professional forums include:
- Training materials for convoy security
- Foreign Internal Defense in Afghanistan OEF
- The Infantry Scout Platoon Role in Iraq
- Training Support Packages (TSP) on room clearing
- Center For Army Lessons Learned (CALL)’s Handbook 07-21 “Escalation of Force”
- Lessons learned from commanders and NCOs returning from Iraq
- Platoon RAIDs being conducted in Iraq
- Field Artillery in Iraq
- Senior Iraqi Perspectives
- Deployment issues
- Medical training in Iraq
- “Must Haves” in Iraq and Sniper Operations
- Current uniform policies in theater
NCO Site History
NCO Net origins began in the early 1990s with Command Sergeant Major Daniel K. ElderDaniel K. Elder
Command Sergeant Major Daniel Keith Elder is a retired United States Army Command Sergeant Major who served as the 12th Senior Enlisted Advisor, United States Army Materiel Command from 2005 to 2008...
exploring his personal computer and modem with friends. They were dabbling with PCs and the new telecommunication capability – Bulletin Boards Systems (BBS's). With a dial up modem hosted in his house and a single phone line, NCOs could log onto the “The Old Soldiers BBS” with a local Ft. Knox KY number. In the earliest days, only one person at a time could connect to the BBS – an era before the internet, before Google, and before military documents were easily accessed. It was also a time where long distance costs were charged. But once dialed in, the NCO would find relevant files and time saver programs for Soldiers, many of them provided by the Command and Control Microcomputer Users Group
Command and Control Microcomputer Users Group
The Command and Control Microcomputer Users Group, mostly known by its acronym C2MUG, provided a forum dedicated to the exchange of ideas and free or public domain software between microcomputer users, keying on military command and control applications in the early 1990s...
(C2MUG) at Ft Leavenworth, KS. Users could also log on daily to read and respond to postings in the threaded discussions. The NCO site was the manual Yahoo search engine for Army NCOs.
By 1997 the BBS went away. CSM Elder continued to explore technology and began building the first NCO website on Geocities. Here the focus began to expand with how the internet could help Soldiers in their day to day productivity. His buddies gave feedback on what would be beneficial. The site began to host Soldier related programs. NCOs would go to the site to share Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) or Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs). But a percentage of them stayed and interactively participated in the discussions. These highly motivated and interested NCOs became the Peer Mentors who helped other NCOs. The Peer Mentors seldom met in person. The Peer Mentors became a family, they argued, laughed and most of all learned from each other. They would physically call other NCOs to help them solve their problems. The Peer Mentors were all volunteers who just wanted to make things better for the other NCOs. Later the site moved which required the purchase of an URL and software registrations. CSM Elder purchased this software out of his pocket. Anything that would help NCOs of today to stay relevant was provided by CSM Elder and his "merry band" of misfits.
CSM Elder emphasized that there was a gap in knowledge among the enlisted ranks. He created the NCO site to fill this void. The NCO site provided tools and discussions on how to use them, how to find what they needed, and how to digest it all. It was all about what to do and how to do your job. As friends told friends, the site became popular. At one point, the NCO site was used by many NCOs in the Army. Dedicated and passionate volunteers gave their personal time and resources to develop, grow, and make the NCO site relevant. Each NCO had a full time day job. It was a team effort with many unsung heroes. See comments about the usefulness of the NCO Site. On August 28, 2003, Cmd Sgt Maj. Dan Elder was awarded the first-ever AKM Pioneer Award by the US Army Chief Information Officer.
In October 2005 the NCO site migrated at the US Army Sergeants Major Academy into the Battle Command Knowledge System. Today the NCO Net is a composite of all its very successful predecessors. NCO Net has evolved into a global system of professional forums, knowledge centers, and supporting toolkits for sharing information and experiences, problems solving, improving operational performance and support of the Non-commissioned Officers Education System (NCOES). Most of the original Peer Mentors continue to volunteer and make NCO Net work. For more details of the history of the NCO sites please go to NCO history and timeline.
In addition to platform and leadership changes, NCO Net has two professional forum facilitators who coordinated the transition of the NCO Team site into the NCO Net, brought the volunteer NCO Team Facilitators (formally known as the Peer Mentors) on-board, integrated the NCO Net into the U.S. Army Sergeant Major Academy (USASMA) courses, and consistently espoused the benefits of NCO Net to the Senior NCO Leadership of the Army. Given the inheritance of the NCO team and the leadership, persistence and hard work, NCO Net continues to provide a collaborative capability allowing NCOs from across the Army to rapidly get answers to questions and provide peer to peer discussions of important issues to the Army and the NCO Corps.
KM Training
BCKS has developed curriculum for the Army’s newly developing knowledge management cells at the brigade and division levels.This curriculum provides the training and education necessary for the Battle Command Knowledge Management (BCKM ) cell to
understand and practice the employment of KM-BCKM activities, principles, processes, techniques, and tools.
This 18–20 hour training curriculum consists of the following modules:
- BCKM
- Knowledge ManagementKnowledge managementKnowledge management comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences...
(KM) - Content ManagementContent managementContent management, or CM, is the set of processes and technologies that support the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. In recent times this information is typically referred to as content or, to be precise, digital content...
(CM) - The BCKM Cell
- Software and Hardware
KM Doctrine
Doctrine is sound military advice prepared in advance. Army doctrine provides a common framework of operations from whichplans can be developed and successfully executed. Doctrine provides a common language and defines the terms used in the
profession. Doctrine presents the fundamental principles that guide the employment of forces and facilitates organizing
forces tailoring for specific operation.
BCKS helped develop the first Army KM doctrine. Working in partnership with the Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate (CADD),
BCKS wrote a field manual interim (FMI) 6-01.1 “The Battle Command Knowledge Management Cell”. This collaborative effort
included direct input from Soldiers in the field. FMI 6-01.1 will serve as the Army’s authoritative source for the Battle
Command Knowledge Management Cell (BCKM). It will serve as the standard reference for understanding the role of knowledge
management in operations. Although the FMI 6-01.1 focuses on the modular division BCKM cell, it will be applicable from
brigade to corps level. FMI 6-01.1 will have an effective lifespan of two years from publication at which time a regular FM
is planned to supersede it. BCKS is the primary coordinator and author of the initial draft of this FMI.
Topics included in the FMI are: Definitions, types of knowledge, KM principles, spectrum of KM strategy, knowledge
lifecycles, and relationship of KM with Battle Command, KM in ARFORGEN, BCKM cell functions, duties, and responsibilities, KM
processes, case studies, and examples.
KM Multi-Repository Search Engine
With the explosion of databaseDatabase
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
s and portals
Web portal
A web portal or links page is a web site that functions as a point of access to information in the World Wide Web. A portal presents information from diverse sources in a unified way....
of knowledge artifacts
Artifact (software development)
An artifact is one of many kinds of tangible by-product produced during the development of software. Some artifacts help describe the function, architecture, and design of software...
throughout the United States Department of Defense, as
well as access restrictions placed on them by community/ forums leaders, it is difficult for Soldiers to quickly find and
apply relevant information in support of their combat mission. The Battle Command Knowledge System (BCKS) has provided the
resources and leadership
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
to implement the Warrior Knowledge base (WKB), an online repository of data assets/artifacts
Artifact (software development)
An artifact is one of many kinds of tangible by-product produced during the development of software. Some artifacts help describe the function, architecture, and design of software...
and
platform for conducting federated search
Federated search
Federated search is an information retrieval technology that allows the simultaneous search of multiple searchable resources. A user makes a single query request which is distributed to the search engines participating in the federation...
es across domains. The BCKS vision is to make it easy for Soldiers to find trusted
data assets from portals and domains throughout the Army and the DoD, so information can be captured, repurposed and shared
Sharing
Sharing the joint use of a resource or space. In its narrow sense, it refers to joint or alternating use of an inherently finite good, such as a common pasture or a shared residence. It is also the process of dividing and distributing. Apart from obvious instances, which we can observe in human...
within minutes. Most repositories are not structured to support semantic searches of their content, only searches of indexed
information, which hinders discovery
Discovery (observation)
Discovery is the act of detecting something new, or something "old" that had been unknown. With reference to science and academic disciplines, discovery is the observation of new phenomena, new actions, or new events and providing new reasoning to explain the knowledge gathered through such...
. They cannot provide the real-time linkage between the data asset and the forum where
it is being discussed and validated. The BCKS leadership
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
and vision brings industry-leading search and content management
technology to Soldiers worldwide.
Digital Storytelling and Interactive Video
NarrativeNarrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
engineering is the KM discipline that applies storytelling
Storytelling
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...
to the purposes of the organization. The NCO Net pilot
is the cornerstone of Army narrative engineering, and is designed to bring storytelling
Storytelling
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...
to bear for: knowledge creation,
sharing and exploitation; building and integrating individual, team and organizational expertise; leader development and
leadership
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
; a “springboard” for change; and situational awareness
Situation awareness
Situation awareness, situational awareness, or SA, is the perception of environmental elements with respect to time and/or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status after some variable has changed, such as time...
, as a way to organize and articulate perception,
interpretation and actionable prediction in an operational environment. The NCO Net is a foundational Army community of
practice, but the narrative engineering pilot has implications across the entire breadth and depth of military operations,
learning
Learning
Learning is acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves.Human learning...
, and innovation
Innovation
Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...
. The NCO Net pilot focuses on a road to competency in actionable cultural awareness using digital stories
Digital storytelling
Digital storytelling refers to a short form of digital film-making that allows everyday people to share aspects of their life story."Digital storytelling" is a relatively new term which describes the new practice of ordinary people who use digital tools to tell their 'story'...
and face-to-face
Real life
Real life is a term usually used to denote actual human life lived by real people in contrast with the lives of fictional or fantasy characters.-Usage online and in fiction:On the Internet, "real life" refers to life in the real world...
stories, both supported by a Narrative Wizard.
Results
NCO Net posted a 3D animated video clip “Trouble at Checkpoint 4” showing a set of problems unfolding at a checkpoint inIraq. The online NCO facilitator led discussion with context specific thought questions on how the Soldiers could handle the
situation. Over 220 comments from junior to senior ranks were posted within first 48 hours. This video and comments have
been viewed over 6,000 times in US, Europe, and Iraq. Some of the comments received were:
- Good leadershipLeadershipLeadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
training - Many discussions concerning how Soldier should have reacted
- Good cultural awareness training
- Amateurs talk about TTPs (tactics, techniques, and procedures – 'How to books'),professionals talk about people and cultures
Read more about Check Point 4 in the May 2007 issue, Army Magazine
See also
{| border="1" cellpadding="2"|-
| Adaptive
Adaptive behavior
Adaptive behavior is a type of behavior that is used to adjust to another type of behavior or situation. This is often characterized by a kind of behavior that allows an individual to change an unconstructive or disruptive behavior to something more constructive. These behaviors are most often...
|| Facilitation
Facilitation
The term facilitation is broadly used to describe any activity which makes tasks for others easy. For example:* Facilitation is used in business and organizational settings to ensure the designing and running of successful meetings....
|| Process Improvement
Process improvement
In organizational development , process improvement is a series of actions taken by a process owner to identify, analyze and improve existing business processes within an organization to meet new goals and objectives. These actions often follow a specific methodology or strategy to create...
|-
| Accessibility
Accessibility
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity...
|| Federated Search
Federated search
Federated search is an information retrieval technology that allows the simultaneous search of multiple searchable resources. A user makes a single query request which is distributed to the search engines participating in the federation...
||
Professional Forums
|-
| Best Practice
Best practice
A best practice is a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark...
|| Indexed Searches
Index (search engine)
Search engine indexing collects, parses, and stores data to facilitate fast and accurate information retrieval. Index design incorporates interdisciplinary concepts from linguistics, cognitive psychology, mathematics, informatics, physics, and computer science...
||
Rapid Knowledge Transfer Through BCKS
|-
| Business Process
Business process
A business process or business method is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product for a particular customer or customers...
|| Informal Learning
Informal learning
Informal learning is one of three forms of learning defined by the OECD. The other two are formal and non-formal learning. Informal learning occurs in a variety of places, such as at home, work, and through daily interactions and shared relationships among members of society. For many learners this...
|| Schema
XML schema
An XML schema is a description of a type of XML document, typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, above and beyond the basic syntactical constraints imposed by XML itself...
|-
| Change Agent
Business transformation
Business transformation is the fundamental change to the way a business operates, whether that be moving into a new market or operating in a new way It is an approach that attempts to align an organisation's activities relating to people, process and technology more closely with its business...
|| Innovation
Innovation
Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, technologies, or ideas that are accepted by markets, governments, and society...
|| Simulations
|-
| Collaboration
Collaboration
Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal. It is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals, — for example, an intriguing endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing...
|| Interactive Video
Interactive video
The term interactive video usually refers to a technique used to blend interaction and linear film or video.-Interactive video on broadband:Since 2005, interactive video has increased online as the result a number of factors including:...
|| Situational Awareness
|-
| Collaborative Software
Collaborative software
Collaborative software is computer software designed to help people involved in a common task achieve goals...
|| Intuition
Intuition (knowledge)
Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason. "The word 'intuition' comes from the Latin word 'intueri', which is often roughly translated as meaning 'to look inside'’ or 'to contemplate'." Intuition provides us with beliefs that we cannot necessarily justify...
|| Scenario
Scenario
A scenario is a synoptical collage of an event or series of actions and events. In the Commedia dell'arte it was an outline of entrances, exits, and action describing the plot of a play that was literally pinned to the back of the scenery...
|-
| Communities of Practice (COPs) || Knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
|| Semantic Web
Semantic Web
The Semantic Web is a collaborative movement led by the World Wide Web Consortium that promotes common formats for data on the World Wide Web. By encouraging the inclusion of semantic content in web pages, the Semantic Web aims at converting the current web of unstructured documents into a "web of...
|-
| Content Management
Content management
Content management, or CM, is the set of processes and technologies that support the collection, managing, and publishing of information in any form or medium. In recent times this information is typically referred to as content or, to be precise, digital content...
|| Knowledge Management
Knowledge management
Knowledge management comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences...
|| Sensemaking
Sensemaking
Sensemaking is the process by which people give meaning to experience. While this process has been studied by other disciplines under other names for centuries, the term "sensemaking" has primarily marked three distinct but related research areas since the 1970s: Sensemaking was introduced to...
|-
| Content Management Systems || Knowledge Transfer
Knowledge transfer
Knowledge transfer in the fields of organizational development and organizational learning is the practical problem of transferring knowledge from one part of the organization to another part of the organization. Like Knowledge Management, Knowledge transfer seeks to organize, create, capture or...
||
Share
Sharing
Sharing the joint use of a resource or space. In its narrow sense, it refers to joint or alternating use of an inherently finite good, such as a common pasture or a shared residence. It is also the process of dividing and distributing. Apart from obvious instances, which we can observe in human...
|-
| Decision Making
Decision making
Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.- Overview :Human performance in decision terms...
|| Leadership
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
|| Social Action
|-
| Digital Asset Management
Digital asset management
Digital asset management consists of management tasks and decisions surrounding the ingestion, annotation, cataloguing, storage, retrieval and distribution of digital assets...
|| Learning
Learning
Learning is acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves.Human learning...
|| Social Learning
Social learning
Social learning may refer to:* Observational learning , learning that occurs as a function of observing, retaining and replicating behavior observed in ones environment or other people....
|-
| Digital Storytelling
Digital storytelling
Digital storytelling refers to a short form of digital film-making that allows everyday people to share aspects of their life story."Digital storytelling" is a relatively new term which describes the new practice of ordinary people who use digital tools to tell their 'story'...
|| Learning Organization
Learning organization
A learning organization is the term given to a company that facilitates the learning of its members and continuously transforms itself. Learning organizations develop as a result of the pressures facing modern organizations and enables them to remain competitive in the business environment...
||
Tacit Knowledge
Tacit knowledge
Tacit knowledge is knowledge that is difficult to transfer to another person by means of writing it down or verbalising it. For example, stating to someone that London is in the United Kingdom is a piece of explicit knowledge that can be written down, transmitted, and understood by a recipient...
|-
| Discovery
Discovery (observation)
Discovery is the act of detecting something new, or something "old" that had been unknown. With reference to science and academic disciplines, discovery is the observation of new phenomena, new actions, or new events and providing new reasoning to explain the knowledge gathered through such...
|| Meta Tag
Meta element
Meta elements are the HTML or XHTML <meta … > element used to provide structured metadata about a Web page. Multiple elements are often used on the same page: the element is the same, but its attributes are different...
|| Taxonomy
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
|-
| Enterprise Content Management
Enterprise content management
Enterprise Content Management is a formalized means of organizing and storing an organization's documents, and other content, that relate to the organization's processes...
|| Military Operations ||
Team
Team
A team comprises a group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team...
|-
| Experience
Experience
Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....
|| Narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
|| Validation
|-
| Experiential Knowledge
Experiential knowledge
Experiential knowledge is knowledge gained through experience as opposed to a priori knowledge. In the philosophy of mind, the phrase often refers to knowledge that can only be acquired through experience, such as, for example, the knowledge of what it is like to see colours, which could not be...
|| Organizational Development ||