An Adaptive Intelligence Community
Excellent read on the needed reform within the intelligence community. Snippet:
What’s needed today is an analysis-centric, rather than collection-centric, model that would elevate the importance of unclassified information and discourage compartmentalization. It would encourage analysts to hunt and gather data, rather than living on a restricted diet of the secret — or, for that matter, open-source — data pellets that the current collection system feeds them. Intelligence should provide context and allow imaginative hypothesizing.
It’s in this, the most pressing of problems in knowledge work, that the right application of strategic technology can yield the highest returns. And the best part is: it can be done cheaply from the bottom up within these organizations. (Hint: platforms.)
This kind of groundswell shift will affect the organization, and its culture over the long run rather than just short-run superficial restructuring (which is indeed tiring and ultimately an exercise in futility). Also, the right change agent, armed with this kind of technology (or buying power), can exponentially grow the second order results of her own impact.
China Continues to Hammer Away At Legitimacy
By banning trading virtual goods for real money.
Gaming Higher Education
U of I got caught. Not an isolated case however.
Good News: Military Funding at Pre-9/11 Levels
Excellent cuts (especially in missile defense).
Nice
Someone I’ve been mentoring for a while just had his first op-ed published in the Washington Times. Unfortunately, his thinking is wrong (we don’t need to waste more on the F-22) but it’s still nice to see someone who has worked for you gain traction like this.
Pirate Hunting On Vacation
LOL.
Wealthy punters pay £3,500 per day to patrol the most dangerous waters in the world hoping to be attacked by raiders.
When attacked, they retaliate with grenade launchers, machine guns and rocket launchers, reports Austrian business paper Wirtschaftsblatt.
Passengers, who can pay an extra £5 a day for an AK-47 machine gun and £7 for 100 rounds of ammo, are also protected by a squad of ex special forces troops.
The yachts travel from Djibouti in Somalia to Mombasa in Kenya.
The ships deliberately cruise close to the coast at a speed of just five nautical miles in an attempt to attract the interest of pirates.
Infographic: Somali Piracy
Cool infographic titled Cuthroat Capitalism.
On Social Business Design
A few years ago, while in school, I wrote pretty extensively about rethinking technology in higher education.
Unfortunately, most CTO-types (not necessarily even near the senior levels of administration) in that realm spend their time trying to make Outlook function and keep the website up to date. Instead of just applying superficial technology, I wanted to transition to strategic technology.
This is the idea that the right technology (think a full spectrum collaborative environment) drives the structure of the organization rather than simply being a function thereof.
My example from back then, to turn a college into a powerhouse of innovation (rather than a factory of rote):
- Most colleges and professors take feedback forms at the end of the year – on paper. Instead, create an indexed and searchable database where this data is input.
- Doing so would create a marketplace for its courses – which creates incentive for professors to innovate and simultaneously allows students to gain the most bang for their buck. Alumni could reinforce the most innovative classes by earning advanced degrees and paying higher fees etc.
(Looks like exactly the kind of stuff that friends over at Dachis are gearing up to help you accomplish.)
Intelligence Officer Training
About time something like this is put in motion. ROTC for the intelligence community.
Defining Small Arms
Heard an interesting statistic today: 99% of weapons used in modern warfare are small arms.
Not sure, but gut says the percentage is probably very much near there. Unfortunately, we are going to have to redefine that term. .. the rate of additions to the category are accelerating along Moore’s curve.
Schneier on Food Security
Excellent column. Covers a paper including all known food system attacks and just how rare and unlikely that variant is.
Ideological History of the Supreme Court, 1937-2007
Alex Lundry has the infographic.
Open Source Counterinsurgency In Cincinnati
This story does parallel the trajectory most governance platforms follow when facing such a threat:
First, the overreach (think the Surge).
Two high-profile shootings in Cincinnati in April 2006 created the perception that crime was out of control in the city. The police believed that many of the killings involved gangs and were related to the drug trade. That summer, the Cincinnati police force implemented a “zero tolerance” policy, arresting more than twenty-six hundred people. The policy reduced street crime but had little effect on the city’s murder count, which continued to rise.
Then open source counterinsurgency took hold. (Think the Awakening or Salwa Judum.)
Kennedy explained that, in Cincinnati, the police would identify gang members who were on parole or probation and compel them to attend a meeting. There, the cops would demand that the shootings end, and promise that, if they did not, the punishment would be swift and severe and target the entire gang. The city would also make life coaching and job counseling available to those who wanted out of the thug life. The police were initially skeptical about the program, but in 2007, they began implementing Ceasefire with a team that included social workers and academics.
(Full story’s behind a paywall.)
Infopollen
Jon Lukens has some interesting stuff to say. Added to the reader.
Twitter Revolution // Frustration
Friend Marc Ambinder discusses the value of Twitter in providing analysis of ongoing events in Iran. (BTW the right moniker is protest, not an insurgency, thus not a revolution.)
It must be said though, and not to bang on this drum too much, but Twitter’s feed is not an effective way of understanding what’s happening on the ground. It was useful seven months ago (much smaller audience), yes, but not anymore. Data overflow has rendered the presentation stack ineffective. At the minimum, a real crisis-Twitter would process data (not just provide a raw feed). Taken to its full potential, however, this kind of information flow can transform the world. (MUCH richer presentation stack required.)
