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“Where’s Farah?”: Knowledge silos and information fusion by distributed collaborating teams

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Abstract

The Cognitively-Based Rapid Assessment Methodology (C-RAM) system manages multiple-user interactions as users work with multiple information sources. Further, it allows users to view, exchange, organize, and combine the information available and it facilitates group decision-making. Three-member teams, randomly assigned in either the (a) view others’ whiteboards or (b) cannot view others’ whiteboards conditions, completed an intelligence analysis and mission planning task. Each team member was given access to a virtual whiteboard populated with decision cards (DCards) containing intelligence information constrained to a specific area of expertise. DCards can be assessed (rated) for decision impact and importance and team members have access to all DCards regardless of experimental condition. Team members who can view their teammates’ whiteboards during collaborative activities achieve significantly higher performance. When compared to teams unable to view others’ whiteboards, they move their own DCards less frequently, add fewer additional DCards to their own whiteboards, and rate others’ DCards less frequently. Additionally, rating one’s own DCards is the only process positively related team performance.

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Acknowledgements

This research is partially supported by Dr. Mike Letsky at the Office of Naval Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Business, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Stephen C. Hayne

  2. Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Lucy J. Troup

  3. Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Sara A. McComb

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  1. Stephen C. Hayne
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  2. Lucy J. Troup
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  3. Sara A. McComb
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Correspondence to Stephen C. Hayne.

Appendix 1: The following text was taken from Warner et al. (2008) and describes the SOR

Appendix 1: The following text was taken from Warner et al. (2008) and describes the SOR

“In developing the SOR scenario an assessment was made of the types of cognitive tasks and decisions that were involved in intelligence analysis and mission planning. The assessment started with using Pirolli’s (2005) unclassified cognitive task analysis for intelligence analyst together with the advice Pirolli obtained from intelligence analysts at the Naval Postgraduate School. The results of this analysis were integrated with results from St. John et al. (2006) unclassified SLATE scenario. All this information was reviewed by Lt. Ford, an intelligence officer at the Mission Support Center, Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado. Updates were made to the types of tasks, information and decisions required by intelligence analyst and mission planners, which served as the foundation for the SOR scenario.” (page 8, ibid)

“All the information used for storyboarding was taken from unclassified open sources. In addition, all names were changed to reflect fictitious names along with dates. All photos were also changed, using photoshop, so that all pictures are fictitious. … The text of the SOR scenario was written around a story of “Denkapsa Farah”. The story starts May 26, 2006 where local intelligence indicates that an al-Qaeda element is reforming in the town of Disisabad in Eastern Afghanistan. This group may be attempting to strike a deal with a local, coalition-supported warlord, Denkapsa Farah. The overall instructions to the scenario problem solving team was: “Based on the intelligence provided, work together as quickly and accurately as possible as a team to:

  1. (1)

    Determine if Farah has an association with al-Qaeda (Task 1—1.5 hour)

  2. (2)

    Determine Farah location at a specific time (Task 2—30 minutes)” (page 9, ibid)

“The mission statement above provides the team members with the tasks they are to complete. The general background is a brief history of both the characters in the scenario and real events (such as the September 11 attacks) and people (Bin Laden). The other three sections of the scenario are Human Intelligence, Satellite Intelligence, and Additional Intelligence. Team members are required to share their information with their teammates to accomplish the task.

Human intelligence information

One member of the team is assigned the Human Intelligence portion of the scenario. The information provided to this team member involves such intelligence as hand drawn maps, written notes, banking transactions, phone records, and informant information. There are 15 individual pieces of human intelligence.

Satellite intelligence information

Another team member is responsible for the Satellite imagery in the scenario and has the satellite photos associated with each task. The photos depict buildings from a bird’s eye view as well as close-up with heavier detail and geographical information. There are 25 satellite images.

Additional intelligence information

The third team member will receive additional intelligence from the scenario. All other pieces of information not included in the first two categories have been placed into the “additional intelligence” group (i.e., maps, photographs, open source information, and tapped phone conversations). There are 10 additional pieces of information.” (pages 10–11, ibid)

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Hayne, S.C., Troup, L.J. & McComb, S.A. “Where’s Farah?”: Knowledge silos and information fusion by distributed collaborating teams. Inf Syst Front 13, 89–100 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-010-9274-9

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