The U.S. Army has actively entered the distance learning arena with two programs that allow soldiers to earn college credits or improve their military occupational skills online from their primary bases or while deployed.

Professionals often find solutions that repeatedly prove successful. By documenting these best-of-breed approaches, experts are now able to develop working taxonomies of patterns of success. Known as knowledge patterns, these resources will result in an array of tools to help conduct audits, develop strategies and make decisions.

The U.S. Army is putting the power of Web technology behind its transformation into a knowledge-based force. The effort aims at improving the decision dominance of individual soldiers and the Army as a whole by sharing information and making its cumulative expertise a powerful instrument.

The solution to information overload may lie in one of the key contributors to the phenomenon. Recently developed software now can address the complementary issues of managing data and making it more useful. Personnel at the U.S. Joint Forces Command Joint Experimentation Directorate are exploring systems that could transform military engagement methodology and usher in decision-based operations.

Technology is liberating the U.S. Defense Department from the chains of a single location by enabling it to become a network-centric department. The initiative to create a virtual Pentagon calls for taking advantage of advances in networking, Internet protocol, videoconferencing, mass storage and data transmitting technologies. These capabilities would allow military personnel to continue to collaborate and communicate in emergency situations even if systems within the Pentagon are damaged.

The NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency is exploring the use of digital video broadcast technology in both satellite and terrestrial versions. The technology would support the organization's requirement for a system that can distribute large volumes of information to strategic, deployed and mobile nodes simultaneously at very high transfer rates.

Researchers have developed highly efficient thermal transfer devices that can cool or heat an area thousands of times faster than existing methods. An alloy-based substance can be deposited in microscopic layers on hot spots in electronics or next-generation fiber optic switches to improve their efficiency. The technology also makes possible the creation of tiny, localized heat sources for use in biochemistry, laboratory-on-a-chip systems, and mobile power sources for soldiers.

A globally adopted standard and technology developed for public safety organizations could support multinational military operations by providing international interoperability. The high-level commercial technology product offers various data applications that meet the communications needs of international peace support operations.

A cooperative venture among government, academic and commercial organizations is seeking to build an advanced research park in the heart of Poland. The Warsaw-based entity will serve as an incubator for small companies, provide established firms with access to research facilities and create a venue to turn the fruits of this labor into commercial products.

Eighteen companies have formed a consortium to collaborate on redefining how online identities are established, managed and optimized. The group's members believe that a federated identity approach will enable the next generation of the Internet, which will be characterized by federated commerce. This consumer- and business-friendly concept means that when traveling virtually within a federation of participating goods or service providers, an individual will have to sign on only once and will be able to advance through levels of authentication and authorization without starting the process over at each provider's electronic gate.