The US Army has recently implemented a Battle Command Knowledge System (BCKS) to improve soldiers’ abilities to search the Army’s Warrior Knowledge Base (WKB). The system is based on the MarkLogic Server, an XML-based content platform designed to allow for granular database searches, efficient document delivery, and knowledge and information sharing. The users are often operating with a slow speed link as they are deployed in a hostile forward area, under pressure and time constraints to gather necessary information in preparation for battle. The system enables soldiers to find the most up-to-date information that may assist them in the field. It now is available to 90,000 Department of Defense personnel in the US and overseas

Soldiers can build virtual documents in minutes, pulling together the most relevant content from many search results, such as lessons learned, reports and articles written by experienced soldiers, as well as Department of Defense and Army civilians and contractors. This new system helps the experienced soldier better share information with the inexperienced.

The Army has been a long practitioner of sharing lessons learned and knowledge management so this move falls with that tradition. For example, the U.S. Army installed knowledge sharing a number of years ago as a standard part of its work in both training and real duty in the form of its well known after-action reviews. No effort is considered complete until it has been reviewed and its lessons obtained, including the lessons learned from failures. As knowledge is useful only insofar as it guides action, a key success factor has been a rigorous program of applying the new insights gained through reviews.
During the U.S. military efforts in Bosnia, lessons learned were distributed on a frequent basis. Because such observations as, “avoid snow-covered roads with no vehicle tracks, as they are probably mined” were credited with saving lives, members of other cooperating armies frequently requested a copy of the latest “lessons learned.” People can benefit from their own mistakes and the mistakes of others if they are open about the truth and if communication is facilitated.

The new system continues this tradition. After new insights are vetted and published, the knowledge can then be placed in a XML-based repository so it can be easily discovered, accessed and used by deployed personnel. To meet this need, BCKS developed the WKB repository, search utility and content management system powered by the MarkLogic Server. BCKS forum members can discover content in the WKB and then link to it within a discussion area for further refinement of the discussion topic.

Working across multiple languages has also additional demands on information access. For example, 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 since the file sizes are also very large. This 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.

By using metadata based on the DOD Metadata Specification (DDMS), content is managed automatically by applying metadata properties such as the ‘Valid Until’ date. Using a schema standard used by the DOD community, the MarkLogic Server manages the work flow until the file is transferred to archives or deleted by the content manager, saving the Army time and resources. The Army knew it had to provide content discovery and access at the page level to be of any value to forward-deployed soldiers and the contractors and civilians who support them. They have neither the bandwidth nor the time to download a large file only to discover it’s not what they wanted. This in a very useful application of the new web technologies, as well as an excellent example of knowledge management in action.