A time-honored military event turned 16 years old this summer, and what some may call an unruly adolescent and others an annual gathering that has outlived its usefulness reveals how lessons learned can turn into powerful practices. The Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration, with its trial sandbox mirroring Afghanistan, not only continues to be as vital as it was in years past but also shows that building on experience leads to new discoveries.

The agency responsible for managing NATO’s computer and communications networks is redrawing its financial goals to deal with the global financial crisis. Not only is the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency reducing expenses, but it also is finding new sources of revenue, such as by providing research and development and procurement services to alliance nations.

Automated logistics software based on commercial standards will make its combat debut next year when Germany’s 1st Armored Division deploys to Afghanistan.

Based on technology being developed through the U.S. Army’s Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance, unmanned systems of the future could become trusted companions on the battlefield—much like canines have been for thousands of years.

Military commanders long have complained of limited situational awareness because of faulty intelligence and disruption of their lines of communications. Gen. Carl von Clausewitz called this “the fog of war.” Today’s military commanders face a distinctly different threat to their lines of communications because cyberwar casts a shadow far beyond Gen. Clausewitz’s conventional battlefield and the rules of engagement that govern armed conflict.

Years from now, engineers and scientists across the U.S. Defense Department may double-click an icon on their desktop computer screens and access the phenomenal processing power of the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Defense Department Supercomputing Resource Center (DSRC) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. Those computers are currently capable of processing 350 trillion calculations per second.

Public and private organizations should pay close attention to cybersecurity regulations in the legislative pipeline and adhere both to the rules and intent.

An open-source, business-oriented, social networking tool helps organizations’ employees be more productive by making it easier to share information. The tool helps employees build their careers by marketing their own value and establishing a positive reputation, and it helps them make more informed decisions by following relevant information from colleagues, groups and Internet sources.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is evaluating three smart phone-based Pashto and Dari language translation devices the U.S. Defense Department is developing for use in Afghanistan.

I see some true leadership coming out of selected individuals in the IC and it is inspiring. Sure, there are a million things that could be better and nobody would deny this. However, my philosophy is that we need to support the ones who are in charge, and help them do their job. This is the system we have. Working against it won’t help you reach your goals and certainly will not help the nation reach its goals.