A peek inside the offices of Maya Viz evokes memories of tech's gilded age of a few years ago: jean-clad, baby-faced knowledge workers splayed across furniture, bouncing ideas off brightly colored walls -- and each other. It's a creative worker's dream -- a wide, circular open space with hip furniture, paternity leave and bouncing balls to calm restless energy.

	Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Maya Viz staffers, facing camera from left, Janette Knittel, Chris Lain, Beth Friel and Joe Pedrazzoli, work on "Command Post of the Future" software at the company's South Side office. Click photo for larger image.

You'd never know that what's going on in between these seemingly playful walls at the South Side software design firm is serious fare. Since its inception in 1998, Maya Viz has been developing software for the military, specifically the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA.

Its mission is to help battle units better communicate, and one of its programs, "Command Post of the Future," or CPOF, is being used in Iraq, where leaders of the Army's 1st Calvary Division can glimpse each other's computer screens to exchange thoughts, information and data, all while in remote locations.

On computers equipped with at least three screens, soldiers can map out logistics, solve problems, even leave each other post-it messages simultaneously. Linked by a wireless network, the soldiers also can talk to each other using what's known as Voice-Over-Internet Protocol technology -- in other words, they can talk over the Internet as they would over a phone.

"We're giving them visualizations of their data so they can see it and manipulate it," said Maya Viz Chief Executive Officer Steven Roth, whose research since the 1980s on how people visualize information helped create CPOF. Roth and his staff of 46 have been tweaking CPOF for actual battle for years, but found themselves under the gun late last fall.

Just as the DARPA money was running out, the Army commissioned the program for use in Iraq. "We stayed up all night and all day for a couple of months," said Beth Friel, Maya Viz chief operating officer, of the mid-winter days spent preparing CPOF for war.

The pace hasn't slowed. In a few weeks, Roth and two employees will join a couple of already Army-embedded staffers to assist with CPOF's implementation, made challenging by the inevitable glitches: a difficult terrain and the unpredictable nature of war.

"It's a chaotic environment," said Roth. "Computers fry and sand is blowing in."

To fine-tune CPOF to battle readiness, Maya Viz worked closely with a team of armed services personnel, going so far as to participate in simulated combat -- complete with bomb explosions and Army fatigues. The idea was for Maya Viz programmers to understand what soldiers face in war.

"I can't imagine what the Green Berets thought of us," said Roth, laughing about his three days in boot camp. "These bearded, pony-tailed, eccentric, geeky guys." The experience, said Roth, changed the way his team developed the software.

Maya Viz managed to outlive tech's dark days with what got them started in the first place -- government contracts. The company, spun out of office mate and design consulting firm Maya Design, commercializes technology, called Comotion, that transforms data into user-friendly graphic images.

Since the beginning, Maya Viz hasn't raised venture capital and has been profitable -- sales hit $5.3 million last year. The firm recently was named one of America's fastest growing companies by Inc. Magazine's "Inner City 100 Index."

Friel said the company's next challenge is to round up additional commercial clients in nonmilitary industries, including health care, finance and manufacturing.

"We have been going around ... looking for innovative companies who are also willing to take a big risk for a pretty big return," she said. Shell Oil Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and the University of San Francisco Client Cancer Center have already signed.

For now, Roth is focused on providing computer support for a group of soldiers scattered in desert tents in the midst of battle. "This is the most exciting thing I've ever done," said Roth. "For me it's like being able to go to the moon."