Recent News
EBR Presents at MORS Workshop - Joint Framework for Measuring C2 Effectiveness
Dr. Richard E. Hayes (President) presented Measuring Command and Control (C2) Effectiveness during the 2012 MORS Workshop at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory on January 24, 2012.
EBR Presents at IDGA's NCW 2012 - Network Enabled Operations Summit
On January 23, 2012, Dr. Richard E. Hayes (President) and Dr. Grace I. Scarborough (Senior Scientist) presented Cyber Defense: Policies, Practices and Challenges. In addition, Dr. Hayes also presented Knowledge Management for the 21st Century on January 24, 2012.
EBR Showcases Research in Contextual Knowledge Management at NDU
Led by Dr. Dennis K. Leedom (Senior Scientist) over the past several years, EBR has conducted an in-depth study of organizational knowledge management as it has been practiced in complex and emergent operational environments such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Sponsored by the US Air Force and US Army, this work has provided a systematic framework for connecting awareness and understanding of the political, military, economic, social, information, and infrastructure aspects of an operational environment to the mission command of stability and counterinsurgency operations. This work goes beyond the relatively straightforward management of information systems and networks to the more complex study of how commanders, functional area experts, and other stakeholders construct narrative meaning and significance in an operational campaign. By addressing people, organizational staff processes, information technology, and knowledge ontology as a holistic system, EBR’s framework can be used to reveal bottlenecks, discontinuities, and areas of potential improvement within a military headquarters. The presentation to the 7th International Lessons Learned Conference at the National Defense University (30 November – 2 December 2011) highlighted the development of this framework and illustrated its utility for exploring the knowledge management implications of an operational vignette (based on the Sunni Awakening movement in Iraq).
EBR President Gives Keynote Address on Agile C2 at TIDE Sprint Conference
On October 24, 2011, Dr. Richard E. Hayes (President of EBR) keynoted the Operational Command and Control (C2) track at the TIDE Sprint conference by presenting on the topic of Agile C2. About 150 professionals from NATO nations and Allied Command Transformation (ACT) attended the event. New thinking on this topic is emerging from the SAS-085 Research Study Group, which brings together specialists from 12 nations to develop and validate (by case studies and experiments) new concepts related to agile C2 in complex endeavors. Dr. Hayes summarized the thinking of that group and introduced new thoughts about decision making in the context of agility.
EBR President Gives Keynote Address at Portuguese Cybersecurity Symposium
On May 2, 2011, Dr. Richard E. Hayes (President of EBR) gave the keynote address at a symposium in Portugal entitled, “Cybersecurity and National Cyberdefense: Capability Development, Solutions, and Initiatives.” The importance of this event for Portugal was emphasized by the fact that both the civilian Minister of Defense and the military Chief of Defense both attended the conference and made major presentations to the audience, which included both senior military and civilian officials. Dr. Hayes's topic, at the request of his hosts, was “Information Assurance: Synergies and Integrated Efforts Between Cybersecurity and Cyberdefense.”
While in Portugal, Dr. Hayes also conducted a seminar on the topic of “Cyberspace as a New Operational Domain—The Impact of Network Centric Operations: The US Experience." This seminar was attended by more than 50 faculty members, guests, and graduate students at the Portuguese Military Academy. Scheduled for one hour, the event was extended for another hour by a lively question and answer session.
EBR Presents at HSCB Focus 2011
Dr. Grace I. Scarborough presented a paper entitled, "Validating Large-Scale Simulations of Socio-Political Phenomena” at Human Social Culture Behavior Modeling (HSCB) Focus 2011: Integrating Social Science Theory and Analytic Methods for Operational Use, February 08-10, 2011, in Chantilly, VA.
EBR Paper Featured in Brazilian Project Management Journal
A recent paper prepared by Dr. Jimmie McEver, Dr. Richard E. Hayes, and Mr. John Schlichter of OPM Experts for the Project Management Institute's 2010 North American Congress was translated and featured in the January 2011 issue of the Brazilian project management journal Mundo Project Management. "A Maturidade como Agilidade Frameworks de maturidade para mais agilidade nas empresas" discusses the NATO Network Enabled Capability Command and Control Maturity Model and PMI's Organizational Project Management Maturity Model as complementary frameworks for dealing with complexity, volatility and uncertainty in 21st century enterprises and endeavors.
EBR Presents at Command and Control Conference
Dr. Richard E. Hayes made a well received presentation entitled "Command and Control Agility" at the Command and Control Conference sponsored by the American Institute of Engineers in San Diego on December 1 and 2, 2010.
EBR Presents at PMI 2010 North American Congress
On October 11, Dr. Jimmie McEver of EBR and Mr. John Schlichter of OPM Experts presented a paper at the Project Management Institute (PMI) 2010 North American Congress, which brought together project management professionals across all industries to exchange ideas on today’s project challenges and emerging trends. Dr. McEver and Mr. Schlichter discussed the NATO Network Enabled Capability Command and Control Maturity Model and PMI's Organizational Project Management Maturity Model and their complementary applicability for helping organizations and endeavors evolve the agility needed to deal with 21st century challenges of complexity, volatility and uncertainty. (PMI is the world’s leading not-for-profit membership association for the project management profession, with more than half a million members and credential holders in 185 countries. Source: PMI.org)
EBR Participates in Mission Command CP Workshop at Ft Leavenworth
Drs. Jimmie McEver and Richard E. Hayes participated in the 2017 Mission Command CP Workshop at the US Army Battle Command Battle Lab at Ft Leavenworth, KS from October 4-7, 2010, providing a plenary presentation, entitled “Future Operations in Complex Environments, Mission Command, and Agility,” on behalf of the Command and Control Research Program (CCRP) of OSD/NII. This workshop brought together a cross-section of the C2/Mission Command community of practice to explore implications of the Army’s Mission Command Functional Concept for the development and design of, and integration of Mission Command into, the 2017 Command Post. The Army's emerging Mission Command doctrine recognizes that 21st Century missions and operating conditions require fresh approaches that take advantage of the professional military and respond to the need for more decentralized approaches to command and control. The workshop included a variety of active duty Army and civilians charged with re-drafting key elements of doctrine dealing with a range of operations from Major Combat through Inform and Influence Operations.
EBR Awarded Phase I SBIR Contract
It was recently announced by the US Army that EBR will be awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovative Research contract to develop an advanced knowledge management tool for assisting military commanders in gaining increased situation awareness in a complex and emergent operational environment. A unique aspect of this research is its explicit focus on analytically representing a commander’s structural/functional context (organized awareness of the structures and functions within an operational environment that are perceived to represent pathways of cause-effect influence) and narrative context (an understanding of how specific sequences of actions and events use these pathways of influence to move the state of the operational environment toward a set of desired objectives). The proposed framework extends and overcomes the limitations of fixed, well-formed, bounded, and universal ontologies that characterize current generation digital information system technologies. By contrast, it enables the commander to dynamically construct the meaning and significance of specific battlefield objects, constructs, and state properties in a holistic manner. The resulting methodology will facilitate the rapid construction, collaborative reconciliation, and maintenance of a dynamic framework of contextual understanding across a military command and control organization. It will also enable the commander to visualize his operational context and decision space in different ways—e.g., place specific narratives within a holistic context, examine the situational elements that contribute to a specific value chain, or identify points of synergy or conflict between two or more narratives.
EBR Personnel Highlight Recent Work
EBR personnel have made presentations at a variety of conferences this year, highlighting the variety of research and development currently underway.
Dr. Richard E. Hayes
Dr. Richard E. Hayes, President of EBR, made a plenary presentation at the 15th Annual International Command and Control Research and Development Symposium (ICCRTS) on the “Response to the Haiti Earthquake.” EBR is supporting NATO SAS-085, a Research Study Group examining issues related to Requisite Agility and C2 Maturity. This case study (a work in progress) will support development and validation efforts on this important topic.