Positive comments about Intellipedia from the Yale Daily News or are they really positive?
I just saw this Yale Daily News article by Michael Seringhaus, a sixth-year graduate student in the Department of Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics: ‘Intellipedia’? CIA jumps on wiki wagon
Below are some quotes and comments:
Here's the positive:
At a basic level, the new system makes sense. With 16 different agencies, shared goals and many areas of overlap, the intelligence community could likely profit from a comprehensive, communally updated information depository. Ideally, such a system would automate information collation and offer a pre-synthesized crock pot of high-test tattle. Preparing the National Intelligence Estimate would then become simply a matter of bulk-dumping the wiki's contents to a file and whisking it to the president.
And now for some not exactly positive quotes:
...I doubt Intellipedia will nurture or reward dissenting voices within the intelligence establishment anytime soon. If it doesn't, we've just affixed a multi-agency rubber stamp to the work of the same warmongering misinformation artists who designed and implemented the Iraq war. Jolly good.
I don't think Intellipedia will nurture or reward dissenting voices, but I imagine that one of the 16 other WILL reward or nurture. Based on their public speeches, I think their senior leadership is interested in hearing dissenting voices.
Even if we are satisfied with the motives of intelligence staff, the Intellipedia system still raises security concerns. Is it wise to publish sensitive documents en masse to a digital network, and then make them available to thousands of workers from assorted agencies?
If they are cleared to the same security clearance level, why not?
The Transportation Security Authority and national laboratories can now access Intellipedia. There is talk of inviting Britain, Canada and Australia to contribute, and even of granting access to China, allegedly so doctors there can comment on avian flu. All this seems like a recipe for trouble. Then again, I've always secretly hoped to see airport baggage handlers and rural Chinese doctors weigh in on American strategic defense policy, so why not? Let the media leaks begin.
I really doubt that airport baggage handlers will have access to the system especially if they are not appropriately cleared. There's more to the TSA, than the airport security staff. Regarding giving China access, Fred Hassani mentioned that that they could have access to the unclassified intelligence estimate on the worldwide threat posed by infectious diseases. I doubt they'd have access to any highly classified stuff.
Eric Haseltine, chief scientist for the Director of National Intelligence, recently bragged: "We are using wikis, we are using blogs, we are using chat, we are using instant messaging." Impressive haul, Eric: the Four Horsemen of Internet time-wasting, right there. Just add Facebook and you'll have a full house.
Practically anything in the world (Internet or non-Internet based like phones and smoke breaks) can be used to waste time. It all really depends on how they are being used. That's where the peer reviews and monitoring come into play. If people are just wasting time, then they need to be called out on it!
It is gratifying to note that Mark Foley's very public loss to instant messenger-fueled temptation last month seemingly has not curbed government enthusiasm for fun Internet distraction.
see comment above.
In a sense, Intellipedia is a sobering reminder of just how ho-hum the intelligence community really is. We glamorize the business: Spies are patriotic charmers with high-tech gadgets, and analysts are devoted and omniscient eggheads with advanced computers and top-secret software. It's deflating, then, when the CIA squeals over publicly available open-source hand-me-downs like a child on Christmas morning. Yeah, wikis are cool. We know. We use them.
Ho-hum? Is this really fair?
Sigh. Does this mean there's no laser watch?
Sigh. The world is not always really not like how Hollywood presents it... (Digression: Though sometimes Hollywood does tell true stories. I just saw "Catch a Fire." An eye-opening story and excellent movie!)
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