Portal upgrade brings cutting edge information collaboration to AFCENT Published May 13, 2013 By Tech. Sgt. Sara Bishop U.S. Air Forces Central Public Affairs SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. -- When people think about essential warfighter tools, they don't immediately think of information sharing sites. That's about to change with the AFCENT Information eXchange, or AIX. "AIX puts information at the warfighters' fingertips, bringing more robust search capabilities and making it easier and quicker to find the right information at the right time," said Lt. Col. Kelly L. Varitz, AFCENT A6 Chief of Operations. "In the new version, information sharing is customizable to each user or organization, making information sharing more efficient, in a manner that works best for each warfighter and those they collaborate with." According to Kristi Miller, AFCENT A6O Web Team member, users will have customizable personal sites to share comments and blogs, and have the ability to "follow" organizational sites, documents and other people. The newsfeed portion of a user's site shows a summary of all blogs, community conversations and all sites, content, and people they follow. Newsfeed gives the warfighter the ability to post and reply to other warfighters' comments. The warfighter also has the ability to filter their newsfeed to show information directed to their particular office and follow specific tags. Co-authoring will be the new norm, with multiple collaborators updating documents simultaneously without requiring the usual check-out and check-in process; creating efficiency and saving time, Miller said. Individuals can interact with workbooks and the site allows integration of documents for interactive reports and slide shows directly in the browser. "Navigation is simplified with content in one site collection point," Miller said. "Users will know, at-a-glance, if a document is available for access and what security controls are in place on the document. There will also be many other document management functions available with just one click of the mouse - not hidden in multiple menu layers" The time-frame for the AIX change-over is late Spring 2013 for Shaw and the Combined Air Operations Center. Upgrades for other area of responsibility bases will be completed by Fall 2013.