Battle command knowledge system The battle command knowledge system ( BCKS ) is the change agent for implementing knowledge management ( KM ) capabilities into the training and military operations of the United States Army . BCKS is headquartered at the U . S . Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas . History . Army Professional Forums were informally implemented by passionate volunteers who wanted to share their knowledge and experience with their peers in order to improve their profession . CompanyCommand . com and Platoon Leader were formally adopted by the U . S . Army in 2002 . The Battle Command Knowledge System Professional Forums were formed in September 2004 to provide structure to this innovative knowledge sharing process . Later , the NCOTeam . org was also supported and adopted by BCKS . By September 2004 , there were four formal U . S . Army Professional Forums with approximately 20 , 000 members . Since that time , the U . S . Army has grown their Professional Forums into one of the premier collaboration instruments in the U . S . Government with 46 Professional Forums supporting active and reserve forces as well as the National Guard . The Professional Forums support soldiers around the world , 24 hours a day , 365 days a year . These collaboration tools have been widely accepted across the entire enterprise structure , with membership ranging from General Officer to Private , all being able to share their unique knowledge and experience with others on the Professional Forum without regard to rank or position . Army Professional Forums currently have over 130 , 000 members and are growing at a rate of approximately 1 , 900 new members per month mainly by word of mouth through a grassroots effort . KM forums . BCKS provides a social network of facilitated professional forums that provide a foundation for knowledge transfer . Army soldiers and civilians connect to share explicit and tacit knowledge to solve problems , share best practices , and develop their professional skills . Leaders and staff members have access to others with similar duty positions and challenges . Functional specialists and those interested in a particular specialized domain gather virtually in focused forums . Statistics . NCO site history . NCO Net origins began in the early 1990s with Command Sergeant Major Daniel K . Elder exploring his personal computer and modem with friends . They were dabbling with PCs and the new telecommunication capability – bulletin board system s ( BBS ' s ) . With a dial up modem hosted in his house and a single phone line , NCOs could log onto the " The Old Soldiers BBS " with a local Ft . Knox KY number . In the earliest days , only one person at a time could connect to the BBS – an era before the internet , before Google , and before military documents were easily accessed . It was also a time where long distance costs were charged . But once dialed in , the NCO would find relevant files and time saver programs for soldiers , many of them provided by the Command and Control Microcomputer Users Group ( C2MUG ) at Ft Leavenworth , Kansas . Users could also log on daily to read and respond to postings in the threaded discussions . The NCO site was the manual Yahoo search engine for Army NCOs . By 1997 the BBS went away . CSM Elder continued to explore technology and began building the first NCO website on GeoCities . Here the focus began to expand with how the internet could help soldiers in their day to day productivity . His buddies gave feedback on what would be beneficial . The site began to host soldier related programs . NCOs would go to the site to share Standard Operation Procedure ( SOP ) or Tactics , Techniques , and Procedures ( TTPs ) . But a percentage of them stayed and interactively participated in the discussions . These highly motivated and interested NCOs became the Peer Mentors who helped other NCOs . The Peer Mentors seldom met in person . The Peer Mentors became a family , they argued , laughed and most of all learned from each other . They would physically call other NCOs to help them solve their problems . The Peer Mentors were all volunteers who just wanted to make things better for the other NCOs . Later the site moved which required the purchase of an URL and software registrations . CSM Elder purchased this software out of his pocket . Anything that would help NCOs of today to stay relevant was provided by CSM Elder and his " merry band " of misfits . CSM Elder emphasized that there was a gap in knowledge among the enlisted ranks . He created the NCO site to fill this void . The NCO site provided tools and discussions on how to use them , how to find what they needed , and how to digest it all . It was all about what to do and how to do your job . As friends told friends , the site became popular . At one point , the NCO site was used by many NCOs in the Army . Dedicated and passionate volunteers gave their personal time and resources to develop , grow , and make the NCO site relevant . Each NCO had a full - time day job . It was a team effort with many unsung heroes . On August 28 , 2003 , Cmd Sgt Maj . Dan Elder was awarded the first - ever AKM Pioneer Award by the US Army Chief Information Officer . In October 2005 the NCO site migrated at the US Army Sergeants Major Academy into the Battle Command Knowledge System . Today the NCO Net is a composite of all its very successful predecessors . NCO Net has evolved into a global system of professional forums , knowledge centers , and supporting toolkits for sharing information and experiences , problems solving , improving operational performance and support of the Non - Commissioned Officers Education System ( NCOES ) . Most of the original Peer Mentors continue to volunteer and make NCO Net work . In addition to platform and leadership changes , NCO Net has two professional forum facilitators who coordinated the transition of the NCO Team site into the NCO Net , brought the volunteer NCO Team Facilitators ( formally known as the Peer Mentors ) on board , integrated the NCO Net into the U . S . Army Sergeant Major Academy ( USASMA ) courses , and consistently espoused the benefits of NCO Net to the Senior NCO Leadership of the Army . Given the inheritance of the NCO team and the leadership , persistence and hard work , NCO Net continues to provide a collaborative capability allowing NCOs from across the Army to rapidly get answers to questions and provide peer to peer discussions of important issues to the Army and the NCO Corps . Results . NCO Net posted a 3D animated video clip " Trouble at Checkpoint 4 " showing a set of problems unfolding at a checkpoint in Iraq . The online NCO facilitator led discussion with context specific thought questions on how the soldiers could handle the situation . Over 220 comments from junior to senior ranks were posted within first 48 hours . References . Work the WWW , MSG Daniel K . Elder , NCO Journal , Fall 1997 , p . 10 – 14 . https : / / usasma . bliss . army . mil / NCOJournal / 97fall . pdf