Representing Meta-Information to Support C2 Decision Making

J. Pfautz, A. Fouse, M. Farry, A. Bisantz, and E. Roth

Proceedings of the International Command and Control Symposium (ICCRTS '07), Newport, RI (June, 2007).

Aggregating, assimilating, and understanding the ever-larger amounts of heterogeneous information present in network-centric environments presents distinct cognitive challenges to the command and control staff. Under previous efforts, we have detailed our efforts to analyze how qualifiers of information, or meta-information (e.g., uncertainty, recency, pedigree), impact information processing and situational awareness in an already challenging decision-making environment. To date, few existing systems explicitly support the management and representation of meta-information. Here, we describe several specific efforts to develop methods for the representation of meta-information in C2 decision-support tools, including methods to support asset allocation (e.g., for air-based ISR, for addressing ground-based threats, for neutralizing near-space or space-based threats). These methods include techniques for the visual portrayal of meta-information in C2 decision-making systems as well as approaches to the computation, when necessary, of that meta-information. In this paper, we discuss these methods within example domains, and discuss lessons learned for the design of future C2 decision-support systems.

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