Intelligence sharing has always been a major problem that has afflicted the intelligence community. The lack of intelligence sharing between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency was cited by the 9/11 Commission as one of the major factors that contributed to the major intelligence failure on that day. While attempts have been made by the members of the Intelligence Community to increase sharing and cooperation, much reform still needs to be done. With internal ideas for better information sharing are coming up short, the Intelligence Community should look to the outside world for more efficient ideas.
During the past couple years; the internet has been going through a major revolution. Websites are slowly evolving from static text into dynamic, interactive web applications. Personal websites are transforming into blogs, and users themselves have created and maintained what is now the world’s largest encyclopedia, known as Wikipedia. Social networking sites, such as Facebook and Myspace, are changing the ways that people are communicating with each other. A major trend of all these new web applications is that the users control the content; they post and share information with each other to build these applications. Within a matter of seconds, anyone can post to a personal blog or edit a page on Wikipedia, with little to no technical knowledge. These changes are seen immediately by everyone that accesses the site worldwide.
What if members of the Intelligence Community started to use similar applications in the workplace? Analysts working on a specific country could post their findings to a blog, which would be viewable by all analysts researching that country. This post would be quick and informal, bypassing the need to write a full report and the time delays that occur as a result. A community wide social network could allow analysts to connect with each other and share ideas. Creating a massive database, similar to Wikipedia, which all intelligence community members could view and edit would be a major step forward for intelligence sharing. While the scope of these ideas would most likely be limited by compartmentalization and classification, they could still very easily revolutionize the intelligence community.
4 comments:
Chris ~
Your idea is already being implemented, and aggressively! so, "Good thinking"... If you do a Google search on "intelligence community" and "Widipedia", you will get the full update. It will be interesting to watch how the IC adopts Web 2.0 technologies, won't it?
As is true for the healthcare community, the Intelligence Community must simultaneously 1) improve information-sharing for the sake of effectiveness and 2) protect information to address security, privacy and due process requirements. Your initiation of this topic is timely because blending Internet 2.0 capabilities into IC workflow and legacy capabilities requires thought and creativity. Note that the Wikipedia definition of "Intelligence Community" understates the scope of information sharing, because it references only U.S. Federal agencies, not the extended IC.
Regarding Dan's post, Google "Intellipedia." The US just began using wikis, blogs, and RSS feeds. It's all in the early stages, though, and there is the ever-present issue that only people who like to contribute will actually contribute. Perhaps your studies can suggest ways to improve the current state of Intellipedia, as well as how to increase participation?
There are a lot of things that Intellipedia does not yet do, however, so even though it's out there, I still think you have a lot of good insight to contribute. (Onfolio is one...)
Best of luck!
This is an extremely and important topic currently under discussion and implementation within the IC. New applications and programs are already in place and, despite continued disagreements between the Generations, Web 2.0 is generally taking off and being well used.
The most significant disagreements occurring at present are between those who believe in the need to share and collaborate and those who believe in information distribution based on need to know.
There are some good articles out there that will point you in the right direction, especially within the CIA.
Good Luck!!
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