Intellipedia is intelligent move for spy agencies to embrace
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), led by John Negroponte, announced the formal launching of “Intellipedia” — a new online peer-to-peer collaboration system, allowing intelligence analysts and officials to coordinate information with each other on the federal government’s classified Intelink Web. Many of us are familiar with Intranets at our places of work. Intelink Web is the Intranet for DNI.
The Oct. 31 announcement is an important breakthrough.
Why?
It has been a very bad decade so far for America’s intelligence, law enforcement, and emergency response agencies.
Two national, heart-wrenching events have cast the spotlight on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s dire need for an agile, networking-based, deftly coordinating, and flat (a la Thomas Friedman) operational structure. Missteps prior to Sept. 11 and the Iraq War have been well-documented. Political leaders from both parties have called for a more collaborative intelligence culture. Consider these quotes from the 9/11 Commission’s July 2004 Public Statement:
“Our intelligence and law-enforcement agencies did not manage or share information, or effectively follow leads, to keep pace with a nimble enemy. …”
“The Intelligence Community needs a shift in mindset and organization, so that intelligence agencies operate under the principle of joint command, with information-sharing as the norm …”
“… ‘Need to share’ must replace ‘Need to know.’”
Earlier this year the U.S. Intelligence Community invited Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, to discuss the use of wiki technology for his juggernaut Web site. Wikipedia is a Web-based encyclopedia where anyone can create, edit and contribute to articles. According to a recent study conducted by Nature, Wikipedia fared well when compared to Encyclopedia Britannica regarding factual accuracy.
Charles Leadbeater, described by Accenture Consulting as one of the world’s top management thinkers, recently put Wikipedia’s application power in some perspective. In a paper posted on his Web site he wrote that in nearly a five-year span from 2001 to 2006, Wikipedia had gone from a collection of 10,000 articles to 1,000,000 articles. The Encyclopedia Britannica had 44 million words of text, whereas by early 2006, Wikipedia already had 250 million words of text.
Wikipedia demonstrates the effects of viral networking growth that can lead to a very positive social epidemic.
Leadbeater argues that Wikipedia’s processes takes peer-review and self-organized collaborative work to scale (i.e. maximizing the human capital relevant and available). He gives three reasons:
1. Participants are asked to ascribe to Wikipedia’s norms and values system — remaining neutral and leaving axes to grind at home;
2. The peer review system rarely stalls, having “evolved very delicately”;
3. Online activities are generally transparent, and hence accountable.
Wikipedia symbolizes an arrival of new social processes for communications and organization. If “wiki power” is married to the “social networking power” exhibited by mega- sites such as MySpace, YouTube and Facebook, we should see elevated productivity in a purpose-driven online space. Whether at the level of local civic group, nonprofit organization, federal agency or department, or even national movement, “wikis” combined with online networking should streamline communications, make group collaborations more effective and change the way we do our work.
Intellipedia is modeled after Wikipedia. Although there are concerns about Intellipedia’s security, most observers believe its potential long-term benefits outweigh risks to secrecy and security. According to news reports, intelligence officials say this new kind of networking and collaborative space could result in more accurate intelligence reports because the process should allow for more scrutiny. National Intelligence Estimates and Presidential Daily Briefings could soon be supported by “wiki” exchanges.
Will Intellipedia signal the transformation of the U.S. Intelligence Community? There is reason to be cautiously optimistic.
I had the good fortune to briefly discuss this development with Gregory Treverton, former vice chair of the National Intelligence Council and now a senior policy analyst at RAND Corporation. Treverton believes this is a “great idea and a good start for encouraging reform” in the U.S. Intelligence Community.
“Intellipedia is perfectly suited for intelligence work. The [wiki] system is conducive to frequent updating from multiple sources, and leaves a track record,” Treverton said.
In less than seven months since Intellipedia’s test launch, the content has grown to more than 28,000 pages, with 3,600 registered users in the online community. We are moving from an industrial society to a networking society, and our governmental bodies at all levels need to embrace the utility of the network effect. At the very least, we can applaud DNI’s efforts.
Paul Diperna, The Examiner. Paul DiPerna is founder and moderator of the Blau Exchange Project at www.blauexchange.org.