Its all go now folks... the preliminary program for KSCO-2012 is available.. and what a great program Niranjan Suri and his colleagues at IHMC in Pensacola have put together.  You really don't want to miss this one.  It has the makings of the best KSCO to date. Three generals are lined up to give keynotes.  Some superb cross-programme panels will communicate what is happening across agencies and countries... which is one of the main reasons the KSCO community meets.  No tax payer money wasting if we all communicate, share and don't reinvent the wheel.

Get the programme and the details of the conference registration and hotels (book by 31st January to get  the conference rate) from http://ksco.info/ksco-2012.html

The Mardi Gras celebrations are on at the time too, and the day after KSCO-2012 there is a big parade in Pensacola if you can stay over. The hotels have agreed to extend the stay period to allow you to stay over if you wish.

Conference Hotel

Conference Hotel 1 (nearest IHMC): Crown Plaza, Pensacola Grand, 200 East Gregory Street, Pensacola, Florida 32501

• Conference Group Rate valid if hotel booked by 31st January 2012.
• Book Conference Hotel at Special Rate ($102 per night per room)

Conference Hotel 2 (also within Walking Distance): Courtyard by Marriott Pensacola Downtown, 700 E. Chase St., Pensacola, FL 32502

• Conference Group Rate valid if hotel booked by 31st January 2012.
• Book Conference Hotel at Special Rate ($102 per night per room). Enter KSCKSCA (King Room) or KSCKSCB (Dbl Queen Room) under "Special Rates, Group Code".
• Guests can also call the Marriott 800 number (800-321-2211) or call direct to (850) 439-3330 and request the KSCO group rate

Alternative conference hotels are available in the area if required. Please contact Niranjan Suri at IHMC to discuss if you wish.

Conference Registration and Fee

We will shortly ask you to register for the conference so numbers are known. A conference fee will be charged to cover the costs of the meeting facilities, refreshments and lunches. A conference reception on Wednesday evening, and group dinner on Thursday evening is proposed also. Details will follow.

Best papers from KSCO-2012 alongside other submissions will be included in a Special Issue on Knowledge Systems for Coalition Operations of IEEE Intelligent Systems in early 2013. For more details see http://ksco.info/ieee-is-ksco-2013.html.

KSCO-2012 will be a two and a half day meeting to be held at IHMC, Pensacola, Florida from 9am on Wednesday 15th February to lunch time on Friday 17th February 2012.

The conference information on this page is also be accessible via the normal conference web URL of http://ksco.info/ksco-2012.html

• Submission deadline: 15 November 2011
• Acceptance notification: 6 January 2012
• Final Papers deadline: 3 February 2012

We have established a (largely empty) KSCO building space on the VCE region in Second Life... alongside the WoSCR facility, and offices used by the Cyber unit from the State of Virginia (VOICCE) and the US Army Research Labs, etc.

It can be reached via this URL (get an avatar in Second Life first): http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VCE/193/233/23

Plenty of space  if we want to rig up an Exposition, etc.  We likely will use the more actively supported I-Rooms and amphitheatre on the VCE region for meetings and workshops.

VW Platform	Location	URL	Launcher
Second Life	KSCO Expo Pavilion	http://slurl.com/secondlife/VCE/193/233/23/

P.S. if you want to reduce mailings from the KSCO Group on OpenVCE.net look at your own profile, and the notifications area, and you can choose the frequency of mailings from seeing each individual every one to a digest for a time period up to a week long.  Change that anytime it gets too heavy.

The KSCO community at the KSCO-2010 meeting in Vancouver agreed to try to make use of web collaboration tools and social media in it's work and preparations for KSCO-2012.

In particular initially the OpenVCE.net KSCO community area at http://openvce.net/ksco will be used to ease management of the KSCO mailing list (currently using a mailing list manager with relatively manual updates) and help users self manage their subscriptions to the list and the ways in which they receive notifications. OpenVCE.net includes links to a community Wiki (based on MediaWiki as used in Wikipedia) for improved sharing of community knowledge , and the area can link to event management, status feeds such as via Twitter, media for images and videos, and even provides links for teleconferencing support via Abobe Connect and virtual world based 3D meeting spaces.

Note that most content for the KSCO area on OpenVCE.net can be read without login, but only members can post messages, add Wiki content and receive notifications of updates.

For better context awareness within the community, the Twitter tag #ksco will be used, so add that search to your own timeline.

In the next few months a couple of mailings to the KSCO mailing list will be made explaining the use of the new facilities, as we wind down use of the old mailing list. We encourage all involved with KSCO to join in the new area by registering at http://openvce.net

KSCO-2010 has now finished and the exchanges were very valuable. Papers, presentations and some pictures will be posted next week after we all return to our home bases.

The outline programme of panels and papers for KSCO-2010, is now available at http://ksco.info/ksco-2010.html.  Papers in a range of areas will be presented, and discussions will look to create future international collaborative project opportunities in the KSCO community. The programme includes panels on:

• Lessons and Training for Major Events Safety and Security
• Knowledge Systems for Cyber Operations

KSCO-2010 is to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from 21st to 23rd September 2010.  You are warmly invited to come along.  Please complete the registration form at http://ksco.info/ksco-2010.html

Call for papers and conference details for KSCO-2010 - Knowledge Systems for Coalition Operations - which will be held September 21-23, 2010 in Vancouver, BC, Canada is now available at http://ksco.info/ksco-2010.html