Semantic mediation and transformation services: Perspectives on military application areas

Semantic technology is becoming an increasingly viable solution to interoperability problems that arise as user communities seek to interact within and across information spaces such as those that ride on the Global Information Grid (GIG).(1) Semantically-aware cross-domain information transformation and service mediation capabilities can be used to improve interactions between diverse Communities of Interest (COIS) and the software applications that service them.(2) This paper is not so much about the details of the technology itself, but is intended rather to focus on the operational domains in which interoperability problems and needs exist for the warfighter that are likely to benefit from the application of semantic technologies. It attempts to unveil military application areas against which technological solutions could be developed by academia, industry, and other technology experts to forge a path toward semantic interoperability and, ultimately, information superiority.(3) It then provides an over-view of on-going and possible future areas of semantic technology research and development being pursued by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Information Directorate (AFRL/IF) located in Rome, NY.