On Thu, 4 Oct 2001, Eric Armstrong wrote:
> As a result, I do find myself experiencing the same frustration that the
> CIA
> undoubtedly lives with -- we know the answer is in there somewhere, but
> our chances of finding it are negligible.
>
> What I find most interesting, in this respect, is that system we need to
> solve
> the "putting it together" design problem may be exactly what the
> intelligence
> community needs to solve the "putting it together"
> proactive-anticipation
> problem.
I'm currently reading a fantastic book on this very topic:
Treverton, Gregory F. _Reshaping National Intelligence for an Age of
Information_. Cambridge University Press 2001.
Treverton was formerly the Vice Chair of the National Intelligence
Council.
Some excerpts:
"Cold War intelligence lived in a world where information was scarce;
it relied on "secrets" not otherwise available. Its business was
those secrets. Now, though, it faces an era of information.
Information and its sources are mushrooming, and so are the
technologies for moving information rapidly around the globe. Given
these circumstances, the business of intelligence is no longer just to
provide secrets; rather, its business is to produce high-quality
understanding of the world using all sources." -p2
"The onset of an age of information has enabled dramatic changes that
encompass the end of communism, the onset of the "market state," with
accompanying transformations in the roles of government and of private
actors, the rise of emerging states, and the proliferation of
non-state actors. Intelligence now has many targets, not one; many
consumers, not just a few; and vast amounts of information that is to
a great extent unreliable, not a scarcity of information that mainly
comes from satellites or spies and is therefore regarded as accurate."
-p6
The parallels between what Treverton writes about throughout the book and
what Doug has been talking about for years are striking, to say the least.
-Eugene
-- +=== Eugene Eric Kim ===== eekim@eekim.com ===== http://www.eekim.com/ ===+ | "Writer's block is a fancy term made up by whiners so they | +===== can have an excuse to drink alcohol." --Steve Martin ===========+------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Pinpoint the right security solution for your company- Learn how to add 128- bit encryption and to authenticate your web site with VeriSign's FREE guide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/yQix2C/33_CAA/yigFAA/IHFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0.0 : Thu Oct 04 2001 - 18:25:54 PDT