ABSTRACT
Entering the term “network centric” into the Google Scholar search engine brings up about 230,000 articles. Entering the same term into a general purpose search engine is likely to yield around seven million hits. It is a popular term used in a variety of contexts. As implied in the quote at the beginning of this chapter, there are commercial and military perspectives, which are reflected in Wikipedia articles on network-centric warfare and on network-centric organization, outlining a particular way of thinking and working in a complex operating environment. In this chapter, we explore some common themes found in these different contexts, and how they relate to the design and operation of systems of systems. Individual researchers have tended to focus on a particular network-centric operational context, and in this chapter we outline their observations and bring them together in the context of the management of emergent events.
