Military Review English Edition May-June 2014 | Page 45

Network-Centric Warfare and the
Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom
Hierarchy
Col. Harry D. Tunnell IV, U.S. Army, Retired

E

ACH TIME PEOPLE use smartphone apps, they are creating a form of digital information unknown to most soldiers less than a decade ago. Today, people produce so
much digital information at such a rapid rate that it is physically impossible to store all of
it.1 In 2010 alone, consumers stored more than six exabytes of new data on personal computers (PCs) and other devices—this is 24,000 times the amount of information stored in
the Library of Congress.2 “Big data” are produced somewhere every day, and volumes of
data are characteristic of modern combat operations. Soldiers must become experts with
systems that manage, manipulate, transform, and analyze data. In the 21st century, tactically relevant information is produced, monitored, and shared in the digital space; commanders must learn to take advantage of data if they are to exercise mission command
effectively.
Col. Harry D. Tunnell IV, U.S. Army, Retired, is principal at InRef, LLC, a new media consultancy, and a Ph.D.
student in informatics at the Indiana University School of Informatics & Computing. He is a West Point graduate and holds an M.S. in information systems from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Col. Tunnell’s
research interests are network-centric warfare theory, military informatics, and secondary user experiences. He
has served in combat in Panama, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Col. Tunnell is the sole inventor on two U.S. patents, has
written two books for the Army, and has seven vendor and vendor-neutral information technology certifications.