An Extensible Data Collaboration Framework Based on Shared Objects

Data sharing and collaboration are vital to the successful implementation of network-centric warfare. This paper discusses a novel approach to data sharing and collaboration based on sharing data objects instead of just sharing the data itself. Sharing objects permits not only data sharing, but also the sharing of the methods required to interpret the data. The net result is a shared object framework that enables multiple clients to create data objects locally, drive those objects to an interesting state and then share the objects and their subsequent future state transformations among interested clients. As described, the system is extensible because clients may introduce new objects as needed.