All news, All about Intellipedia!

It seems like it was only a month or so that I wrote about Bureaupedia. Why Techipedia now? It's not like DOD didn't know. (I've added emphasis and comments to some excerpts below.)

Continue reading "Say it ain't so, John! - DOD jumps on wiki bandwagon - Techipedia! aahh!" »

Posted by eMarv at 03:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Why is it news that Google sells to the Intelligence Community? Would it be news if Google sold servers or donated (for that matter) to a group that is looking to end world poverty?

Or are they just piggybacking on Intellipedia's success (not that Google needs it)?

Or could it be just opportunistic PR for Google. Personally, I think it's the latter since I doubt that Google only recently started pursuing government work. 

It also helps to have a CIA Intellipedia expert, like Sean Dennehy, comment about Intellipedia in the same article (though he does not necessarily endorse Google). It adds to Google's credibility (again not that they need it).  

Don't get me wrong, I like Google. I just wanted to point out their cleverness! :) Looks like their innovation does end in the server room! ;-)

Posted by eMarv at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just saw this on InformationWeek's website where Dr. Wertheimer explains A-Space further:

In December, the DNI will launch A-Space, a portal that will eventually include everything from wikis, blogs, social networking and personalization to RSS feeds, collaborative Web-based word processing, mash-ups, and content tagging all built atop an underlying services-oriented architecture.

A-Space will begin life as a portal that includes a Web-based word processing tool akin to Google Docs, a wiki-based intelligence community encyclopedia known as Intellipedia [self-referencing link, I gotta get links somehow :) ] and access to three "huge, terabyte databases" of current raw intel for analysts to sift through. It'll be scaled for 10,000 users at day one. By the end of 2008, the DNI hopes to bring in other resources like intelligence blogs, social networking capabilities akin to a Facebook for spooks, secure Web-based e-mail, better search functionality, and much more.

So the reality is that true social networking capabilities will not be available until 2008. That's disappointing... More on this later (if I remember), I really need to get some sleep. (It's 4AM.)

BTW, I suggest that you read the entire article. One particularly curious thing I found: "The DNI has even been in talks with IBM about how to put 3-D gaming to work to do analytical problem solving."

Why only IBM, why aren't they talking to MMOGs?

Posted by eMarv at 02:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Briefing on ‘The Intellipedians’ The social software movement within the U.S. Intelligence Community

from the Federal Computer Week website:
In this Web audio-slide presentation, Chris Rasmussen, Knowledge Management Officer, Intellipedia, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Department of Defense, talks about what it’s like to work as an Intellipedian, the rules they live by, and how the new tools are helping transform the ways of the intelligence-processing for good. Rasmussen made this presentation at FCW’s recent Spring Government CIO Summit, in Ft. Myers, Fla.

comments:
This is a very interesting presentation from one of the forward-thinkers in the government. It shows what some folks in the government are really doing to collaborate and create a better government and in reality a better place to live for all of us.

BTW, I do hope that General Clapper has signed into Intellipedia so that he doesn't get his Intellipedia shovel taken away... ;-)

Great work Intellipedians!

UPDATE June 2008: You may also be interested in our exclusive interview with Chris Rasmussen. Enjoy!

Posted by eMarv at 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just saw this story on AlwaysOn with a link the ABC News blog post. Here's an extract that sums up the main point of the post:

The CIA recently updated its policies on Freedom of Information Act requests to allow bloggers to qualify for special treatment once reserved for old-school reporters. And last August, the NSA issued a directive to its employees to report leaks of classified information to the media -- "including blogs," the order said.

My initial question is how can I get on the list so I can receive classified report leaks ;-), but seriously, this is good news for bloggers. Go bloggers!

My second thought is: Would internal (meaning CIA/NSA or in general, Intelligence Community) bloggers and for that matter Intellipedians be allowed to request information for their blogs or Intellipedia using FOIA or would they already have that information available?

BTW, I wonder how they define blogger. Would someone that set up a blog a couple of weeks ago be able to have the same privileges? (I'm not saying that they shouldn't, especially if in those 2 weeks that person has been an excellent blogger.)

Just food for thought while I create a real Intellipedia-related post...

Posted by eMarv at 01:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As I mentioned in the last post, mainstream media is starting the onslaught of Intellipedia articles. The LA Times article is one of them.

Here's some interesting quotes from the article:

After being criticized for downplaying dissenting views on Iraq's alleged weapons programs, "we're trying to transform the way we do business," said Michele Weslander, a senior official overseeing the initiative for the director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte.

Transformation in the Intelligence Community is good. Don't ya think? (BTW, in case you didn't know, Michele Weslander is the Deputy CIO of the ODNI.)

Here's another excerpt:

Officials said that the program is still under development and has not replaced existing procedures used to create intelligence reports delivered to President Bush and other policymakers. But it is being used to assemble preliminary judgments for a forthcoming National Intelligence Estimate on Nigeria and could someday supplant the more cumbersome mechanisms used to create such reports.

I wonder why it hasn't replaced existing procedures and why it hasn't already "supplant[ed] the more cumbersome mechanisms?" If you had a choice on whether to select a process that was more cumbersome or efficient, what would you choose?

Another quote:

"I think in the future you'll press a button and this will be the NIE," said Michael Wertheimer, assistant deputy director of national intelligence for analysis.

Hooray for Dr. Wertheimer! We need more forward thinking leaders like him in the government! Imagine that press a button and out pops the NIE. Who woulda thunk?

Another: "In a meeting with reporters at the Office of the Director for National Intelligence..."

So this must have been the by-invitation-only meeting on 31 October 2006, which the Homeland Security Watch referred to and that I wrote the last post about.

Another: "...officials showed how analysts from multiple agencies had used the network to post frequent updates on recent events, including the crash of a small plane into a New York City apartment building last month and North Korea's test of a missile in July."

Awesome! Real-time intelligence!

Another:

Officials said they were not making the network available to members of Congress or other policymakers, largely because of a reluctance to disseminate material that analysts view as a work in progress.

If the material expressly states that it is a work in progress, what's the problem? Anyway, isn't everything a work in progress?

Another:

But they stressed that disseminating material to the widest possible audience of analysts is key to avoiding mistakes like those that contributed to erroneous assessments that Iraq possessed stockpiles of banned weapons and was pursuing a nuclear arsenal.

"erroneous assessments": I'm not going to comment on this since I really don't want to start a political debate, but we'll see where the blog takes us... :)

And the final and most awesome quote:

"It moves us away from homogenized intelligence," said Sean Dennehy, a CIA official involved in creating the new system.

I was going to say that the only thing I want homogenized is milk, but I drink soy milk. ;-) Being different and diverse is good, especially, IMO, when dealing with intelligence!

So what do you think about the government officials comments? 

Posted by eMarv at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by eMarv at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Intellipedia. Many of the hottest online tools now in use turn out to be ideal for sharing intelligence, officials say. Two years ago, the CIA launched its own wiki. (A wiki is an online site that allows users to collectively add and edit content, like Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia.) Dubbed simply the CIA Wiki, it now boasts some 10,000 classified pages. In January, the DNI followed with a communitywide wiki, dubbed the Intellipedia. The DNI's National Intelligence Council-which produces the government's weighty National Intelligence Estimates on key topics-has just launched an experiment to produce the first NIE by wiki. The subject: Nigeria. Top experts on the oil-rich African nation are working together on the Intellipedia to help chart its future. "I don't know if it's going to work," says Thomas Fingar, the chief of analysis for the DNI. "It might; might not."

Blogs have also caught on among specialists across the intelligence community. Encouraged by the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence, home to the agency's corps of analysts, CIA officials in the past year have signed up for some 200 group blogs and 1,500 individual blogs. After all the early excitement, however, the number of active blogs is now down to about 125. And as on the outside, the intelligence blogosphere is not without controversy. In July, a CIA contractor was summarily dismissed after posting her views that U.S. interrogation techniques violated the Geneva Conventions.

Government censors aside, intelligence blogs sound surprisingly similar to their more public cousins on the Internet. Classified blogs, complains one insider, range from "incredibly stupid" to "a few good ones" that are widely read.

Posted by eMarv at 01:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

“Intellipedia,” as it is called, allows analysts to create a subject, then add their knowledge or documents to the “collaboration space,” [Richard Russell, deputy assistant director of national intelligence for information sharing and customer outreach at the office of the director of national intelligence] said at a conference sponsored by the Association for Enterprise Integration.

Intellipedia was created so “analysts in different agencies that work X or Y can go in and see what other people are doing on subject X or Y and actually add in their two cents worth ... or documents that they have,” Russell said.

“What we’re after here is decision superiority” not information superiority, he said. “We have to get inside the decision cycle of the enemy. We have to be able to discover what they’re doing and respond to it effectively.”

On a more open scale, the intelligence community recently collaborated with Health and Human Services to set up a “sensitive, but non-classified” avian flu portal that can be used by interested parties. Such forums are relatively easy to set up because 90 percent of the information on the subject is unclassified.

Posted by eMarv at 11:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Found another article that refers to Intellipedia and Dr. Andrus:

At the Collaborative Expedition Workshop, D. Calvin Andrus, the chief technology officer for the Central Intelligence Agency’s Center for Mission Innovation, said the CIA has recently begun using wikis to share information. At first, the CIA used wikis internally. It has about 12,000 pages scattered throughout its top-secret network, Andrus said. Increasingly, though, the agency is using the technology to collaborate with other intelligence offices, Andrus said.

Analysts from the CIA’s Office of Iraqi Analysis are devoting time to assembling what they know into a collection of wiki pages, collectively know as the Intellipedia. The wiki pages can then be made available to other intelligence agencies and the analysts themselves continue to update the pages.

So how long do you think it will be before the rest of the CIA embraces Intellipedia? 

Posted by eMarv at 01:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)