Experiences Developing a Virtual Environment to Support Disaster Relief with the United States Navy's Commander Third Fleet

The Center for the Management of Information (CMI) at the University of Arizona worked with the US Navy Commander, Third Fleet (Third Fleet) to overcome limitations of performing closely coordinated staff work on board a US Navy ship. Third Fleet is required to collaborate with hundreds of people internally and with military and civilian organizations both nationally and internationally. Third Fleet has staff officers and enlisted personnel embarked from Canada, Chile, Japan, Australia, Peru, and Britain. In addition, Third Fleet regularly works with representatives from South Korea and Mexico. This physical separation raises significant barriers to collaboration and cooperation. The research presented in this paper details the efforts of CMI, SPAWAR Systems Center and Third Fleet to introduce a virtual workspace on board the Third Fleet Command Ship USS CORONADO (AGF-11), a seagoing command and control platform berthed in San Diego, California. The virtual environment was developed and implemented to afford the staff unfettered collaboration between two different spaces aboard the ship.