From today’s ExecutiveBiz.
This December, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) will be following the national Web 2.0 trend and plans to roll out a social networking platform called A-Space to tie the secret communities into a secret knot and connect people and agencies. This newly adopted technology will hopefully improve remote location communication, after hours communications and ease sharing challenges that affect an agency’s individual contributor’s ability to communicate.
Broad-based security like firewalls and restricted dialing make socializing even harder for the spy and intelligence communities and information sharing more complex. In addition to the social networking applications, the site will also allow the intelligence community to access the national intelligence library. The intelligence community has already stood up to a web 2.0 style private wiki, similar to wikipedia, named Intellipedia.
Apparently, you can’t join A-Space or view Intellipedia without approval. I like the many plays the name could take, a space, “A [list] space, asynchronous space. One must wonder if the Friendly Ghost will rank them.
All jokes aside, it is apparent that even government understands the increasing importance of social media and how it can benefit organizations seeking to collaborate more. The national intelligence community has oft been criticized for its inability to communicate between bodies, so this seems like a natural step. Having the disparate national security organizations use social media to communicate is a big, big plus.
The big danger here is a bad IT implementation, which happens more than federal agencies would like to admit. Plus can the cultures merge? Will they actually use the tools? Love to hear what love hear what you, and federal arena bloggers like Chris Dorobek, Steve Field and Alice Marshall think about this one.
Definitely think this is a good thing. I blogged about this new social network the other day as well, but it has now had a bit more time to percolate.
The intelligence community needs a better way to talk among agencies, as 9/11 proved. Granted, there are obstacles, but the community understands that and is ready to face them.
Check out what the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (an association representing the community) has to say about Web 2.0:
http://dring.wordpress.com/2007/08/22/insa-on-web-20-and-intelligence/
Very useful, Steve. Thanks for sharing that link. Good to see the intelligence community is rallying around this. It’s definitely very positive.
My biggest concern is the cultures. As you know, these agencies have a big habit of engaging in turf wars. Social media is ultimately just a tool. Without willing participants…