Team Charter and Accomplishments. The Electronic Multimedia Image Center (EMIC), of the Visual Information Division, Directorate of Information Management, Chief, Information Office provides multimedia research, development, and production for the U.S. Army War College (USAWC) and tenant organizations of Carlisle Barracks, including the Military History Institute, Army Physical Fitness Research Institute, Center for Strategic Leadership, Peacekeeping Institute, Strategic Studies Institute, and Garrison Headquarters.
The EMIC works closely with the staff, faculty and others in support of the USAWC missions of education, research, outreach and community service. In support of these missions, the EMIC team designs and develops a variety of multimedia applications, including interactive applications, electronic CD-R publishing and web sites.
Team responsibilities include the entire multimedia production process from planning, research, and development, to post-production work such as labels, graphics, and CD-R duplication. Planning involves analyzing customer needs, job and task requirements. Research involves selecting and locating appropriate text, image, and sounds to create the multimedia application. Based on project analysis, the EMIC designs the best strategy of multimedia technology to produce the end product. Production can involve the writing of script, designing application interfaces, flowcharting application sequences, and incorporating a variety of media into an integrated application. For CD production, development also entails the graphic design of CD-R jewel jacket covers and the labels.
In total, the EMIC team is an invaluable resource and catalyst as the USAWC and tenant organizations change their modes of operation. The USAWC is searching for more effective and efficient ways of doing business - its business being the educating of strategic leaders! This drive for effectiveness and efficiency has relied on leveraging information technology for improved information services. The EMIC has been at the forefront of this effort in all mission areas.
EMIC team members are, in alphabetical order: MAJ Bernard J. Jansen, Mr. James
P. McNally III, Mr. James E. Kistler, and SGT Nathan W. Morgan.
Team Recognition. The EMIC was founded in 1996 as the USAWC recognized
the growing need for a cell of multimedia expertise at Carlisle Barracks. However,
despite the hard work and efforts of all involved, a variety of factors kept
the EMIC from being a relevant factor to the USAWC missions. These factors included
personnel turbulence, leadership changes, and shifting directives and guidance.
The current EMIC team was formed in late 2000. The team immediately set upon
devising and implementing a turn around plan with the goal of ensuring the EMIC
team was a contributing member of the USAWC community by focusing on the USAWC
current and future missions, as currently outlined in the USAWC Strategic Plan
2010.
The EMIC team, along with other sections within the division, implemented a
work order management system that permits the detailed logging, tracking, and
analysis of EMIC work orders to ensure customer response times are met. This
work order management system allows for the analysis of costs, examination of
service times, and tracking of supplies, among other metrics, all which identifies
services that need improved or change to better support the customer.
From customer focus groups and trend analysis, the EMIC team fine tuned their
training to focus on the skills necessary to provide the USAWC and Carlisle
Barracks customers the multimedia support they currently required. Also, the
stage was set for supporting what the customers would certainly require in the
future.
Simultaneously, EMIC representatives briefed various academic departments and
tenant organizations on the capabilities and multimedia support that were resident
at Carlisle Barracks within the EMIC. There was obviously pent up demand as
the response was overwhelming. During FY01, the EMIC produced over 8,500 products
(a 2000% increase over 1999) for a direct financial contribution of over $159,000.
These products included 10 original multimedia products, almost 4000 CD-R, and
over 110 web pages. In the area of web design, EMIC actively sought out this
mission, as it was seen as a key enabling technology for all USAWC missions.
The emergence of the EMIC team as a potent multimedia force has resulted not
only in increase effectiveness and efficiency in mission accomplishment, but
also in cost saving. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the electronic publishing
area, which directly supports the outreach and education missions. A recent
customer request was to produce 500 CD-R containing a 400 page book, which previously
was distributed in paper form. The cost of electronic duplication was approximately
$550. The same duplication in paper form would have cost $7,700 dollars, a saving
of $7,000 on a single work order. During FY01, the EMIC estimates a direct savings
of approximately $20,000 by leverage electronic publishing. Additionally, the
effectiveness of distribution is increased due to the ability to include other
applications on the CD-R and links to the customer's organizational web site.
A major project for the EMIC during FY01 was a multimedia application in honor of the USAWC's Centennial celebration. A 10-month project, representing, over 1,000 person hours of effort, the "US Army War College : A Celebration of Service to the Nation 1901 - 2001" CD-R captured 8 major threads of USAWC history. This production has been nominated for national and US Army awards. As an indication of the scope of this project, the application contains 64 files, all working together to make the final application. Total size of the application is just under 600M. There are 1,720 objects used in the application, including 760 images, 615 text, 252 scripts, and 91 audio objects.