Smart Editor

Here's a rather interesting application: Smart Editor. The website is not as flashy as most Web 2.0 applications, but its concept is something that I have not seen before and something that could be extremely helpful. You start to write about anything you want in the text box, and to your right appear links and pictures that are relevant to what you are writing about. I played with it for a while, and found some websites that I would not have come across with a simple google search. It's definitely worth checking out: SmartEditor

Twitter and Outlook

Heres a neat little program that allows you to get Twitter updates right in Outlook, called OutTwit. Just another way to stay up to date on your friend's status, especially if your outlook is open all the time.

Mike Wertheimer is the assistant deputy director of national intelligence for analytic transformation and technology. This position was created as a direct result of the 9/11 Commission's finding.

"Wertheimer's job is to prevent any more such failures and to make sure that the intelligence agencies can accurately predict a host of catastrophic events, including terrorist attacks and disease outbreaks."

The article below is a great read, as it talks about the struggles and challenges Mr. Wertheimer is facing as he tries to bring the theories of Web 2.0 into the Intelligence Community.

Intelligence veteran aims to motivate young analysts
By Shane Harris National Journal September 24, 2007

Twitter

While at first glance Twitter may appear to be a simple blog engine, it has a number of features that gives it the potential to be a powerful tool. It's purpose is simple - keeping a group of friends or associates up to date on what you're doing. You can write a simple sentence, or an elaborate paragraph. Part of it's appeal is that you can do it from anywhere - the twitter website, via email, via instant message, or with your cell phone.

Twitter will allow you to keep your status up to date, and you can configure it to text you when your friends change their status - all from the comfort of your cell phone. It is extremely easy to use, and takes only a minute to sign up and make your first post.

One feature of Twitter that truly stands out is the Twitter Tracker. This feature allows you to specify a specific term, and every time someone mentions that term in their updates, it is sent to you. From there, you can find out more information about that user, and follow their future or review their past updates.

It was when reading about this feature that I began to see its potential in the Intel Community. Picture an internal version of Twitter. Every analyst has a profile, and every day posts what they are working on. Other analysts working on similar projects will receive an alert. The analysts can then, if they choose, communicate with others working in that specific area to share their findings. Its a simple idea, but one that could have major effects on the way that information gathering and analysis is done.

Do you have a Twitter account? What are your favorite features, and can you see its principles implemented in the IC? Like always, I love receiving your comments and ideas.

The World of Wiki

What exactly is a wiki? According to Wikipedia, which is the largest public wiki available on the internet, a wiki is "a medium which can be edited by anyone with access to it, and provides an easy method for linking from one page to another". To me, this definition really downplays all of the great features of a wiki. They are easy to add to, and to edit. No complex computer language is needed to create or edit a page - there is little to no learning curve. Wikis are great for organizing information, knowledge; and can easily be scaled to the smallest or largest of size. Because of their open structure, they are great collaboration resource. The fact that the information posted can be reviewed and altered by others makes a wiki page the ultimate peer reviewed article.

While wiki's are great for the public, how can they be great to the intelligence community? Do you really want a giant wiki - essentially a massive database - of all the intelligence/information out there that can be viewed and edited? How can compartmentalization and classification be handled? While these are all valid concerns, the benefits that a wiki provides are truly invaluable. Some components of the intelligence community are already seeing the potential that a wiki provides. The CIA is one such agency, who has built an internal wiki - Intellipedia. I'll be taking a look at all these questions, along with Intellipedia and other wiki's in the IC in a later post.

There a number of options for someone who wants to start a wiki. You can host a wiki on your computer, or on a web server. You can also choose to have a company host a wiki for you - for most users, this is the best option. The wiki is already installed and configured for you, just waiting for content to be added. There are a number of companies out there that provide this service, but here are some of the best free sites out there:

Wikispaces is a simple looking website, but definitely don't judge this one by its cover. Wikispaces boasts a variety of features, including 2GB of storage, and unlimited users and pages. While this is more than sufficient for most users, they also offer paid packages for power users. One of the useful features available only in the paid plans are the privacy features. You can set your wiki to be public, viewable but only editable by certain people, and completely private - the wiki can only be accessed by a set group of people. Privacy features like this are crucial for wiki implementation in the IC.

Jotspot is claimed by many to be the best hosted wiki application available. They were recently purchased by Google, to incorporate their application into the Google Apps Suite, which includes Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and most recently Google Presentations. Unfortunately, as the transition is occuring, Jotspot is temporarily not accepting new user registrations, and I was unable to get into the site to take a closer look. I'll be sure to update this post when the transition is completed.

Stikipad was the most innovative wiki application I found. They are constantly adding new features, like Google Maps integration and the ability to add RSS feeds to your wiki. Stikipad, feature-wise anyways, is definitely the right choice for power users. Unfortunately, their free plan is a little lacking: they only offer you 30MB of space, and 500MB bandwidth monthly. They do offer moderately priced plans which greatly raise the storage limit, but these paid plans are almost necessary to use all the features available

PBwiki implies its ease of use right in its name. It's main feature is its usability - anybody can quickly create a wiki. PBwiki is more for personal and small group work. Files can be uploaded and shared, and PBwiki ensures the safety of your page by daily backups to three different servers.

Let me know about any wiki applications that you use. What feature do you find most helpful? What kind of features do you look for in a wiki? What are your thoughts about wikis in the Intellgence Community. I'll be taking a closer look at this topic a little later, but I would love to hear your thoughts.

- Chris

Conceptual modeling v. mind mapping

After reading Professor Wheaton's comment on my post about conceptual modeling, I did some additional research into the term to refine my definition. While mind mapping and conceptual modeling are similar, Prof. Wheaton was correct in stating that they are not "synonymous".

Conceptual modeling is more of a process than a model. You begin by restating the intelligence question, and defining your task. Once you have gained a deeper understanding of the question, you can begin to build a model based on information you already know. This basic frame will allow you to determine what information you need. Research is done to build upon this model, and is constantly being improved to build a better model. Having this basic understanding of knowledge about your question and task allows you to conduct better information collection.

While mind mapping and conceptual modeling are not identical, mind mapping applications can still be of great help when attempting to create a visual model. With that being said, I took a look at many of the applications people suggested to me via comments.

I was extremely surprised by the quality of Comapping. The demo on their site was easy to use and quick. I really liked the layout, which is very similar in design to the new Microsoft Office suite. The application does allow collaboration, although I was not able to try it out in the demo mode. The major downside of Comapping is that it is not a free service. There is a 30 day trial available, after which it costs $11.99 every six months. While this is not an extremely unreasonable price, it may be a deal-breaker for most with so many free alternatives available.

I also checked out Yugma, a very useful Web 2.0 application. While its mind-mapping functions were nothing special or above the ordinary, the other functions of the application could prove very helpful. Yugma is more of a web conferencing application, which supports skype integration along with whiteboard support. Definitely worth checking out if you are needing a way to conduct meetings or conferences over the internet, but there are better applications for mind-mapping out there.

As the theme of this blog is Web 2.0, I was trying to avoid desktop mind-mapping software, like MindManager. While many of these programs are definitely among the best, it would take more than a mention to do them justice. I will be focusing on web applications for the purpose of this blog, although your comments and suggestions, as always, are welcome.

Over the weekend I will be doing research into the world of wiki. I'll be compiling a list of the best free online wiki services available, along with a look at their EULA (end user licensing agreements) t0 see how they protect the privacy of their users. Later in the week, I'll be taking a look at how the IC is currently using wiki software internally, especially the CIA's Intellipedia. Feel free to leave me any suggestions, questions, or comments that you have - your input is truly a great help to me.

- Chris

I would just like to take a minute to thank everyone for their comments, thoughts, and ideas. It's great to know that there's so much interest out there. I plan on making another post later today incorporating some ideas from people's comments, and looking at a few more applications. You can reach me anytime by leaving a comment on this blog, or via email: culric71(at)mercyhurst.edu

Thanks again,
Chris