DARPA's Map-Based Wiki Keeps Platoons Alive 86
blackbearnh writes "One of the biggest problem that a platoon on the ground in Iraq or Afghanistan faces is that when a new unit cycles in, all the street-sense and experience of the old unit is lost. Knowing where insurgents like to plant IEDs, or even which families have a lot of domestic disputes, can spell the difference between living and dying. In response to this, DARPA created TIGR, the Tactical Ground Reporting System. Developed as much on the ground in active warzones as in a lab, TIGR lets platoons access the latest satellite and drone imagery in an easy-to-use map based interface, as well as recording their experiences in the field and accessing the reports of other troops. In this O'Reilly Radar interview, two of the people responsible for the development of TIGR talk about the intel issues that troops face in hostile territory, the challenges of deploying new technology meant for combat areas, the specific tricks that they had to employ to make TIGR work over less-than-robust military networking, and how TIGR is impacting platoons in their day to day operations"
Neat (Score:0, Funny)
It's Google Maps for jarheads.
A poem (Score:5, Funny)
It doesn't have any trouble using Milit'ry networking.
It's good for intel in the field, and fun fun fun fun fun!
So boot up that there TIGR, while I go get my gun.
Re:Um... Acronym? (Score:3, Funny)
Even more disturbing, this acryonym could be confused with TIGER [wikipedia.org], resulting in some guy in Fallujah getting a map of Cleveland and some guy in Cleveland thinking there's a IED around the next turn.
Next "Ask Slashdot" (Score:5, Funny)
I'm a military commander and I often find that my troops are invading the wrong houses, bombing schools, et cetera. I've heard that in technical support organizations they use "knowledge base" software to keep track of the solutions to common problems. I have just two questions. 1) Which knowledge base packages meet military security requirements? 2) Will I be able to prevent soldiers from entering "put a bullet in it" as the solution to every problem?