Military Intelligence Goes Web 2.0

Heather Havenstein   Today’s Top Stories   or  Other Development Stories  

Real-time collaboration and development with IBM Rational Team Concert streamlines any project IT Leadership Strategy: How to Provide World-Class Help Desk Support Forrester Best Practices: Improve IT Service Delivery and Support with Remote Services Environmental Sustainability and Networking Keeping Pace with Changing Business Needs - Requirements Change Management Extend, Replace, or Convert; which is the best way forward for COBOL Applications? Sold on SOA Computerworld Report- Large Enterprises Pay More for IPAM Computerworld Technology Briefing: Intelligent Users Use Business Intelligence Sign up to receive Development Resource Alerts

February 26, 2007 (Computerworld) -- The U.S. Department of Defense’s lead intelligence agency is using wikis, blogs, RSS feeds and enterprise “mashups” to help its analysts collaborate better when sifting through data used to support military operations.

The Defense Intelligence Agency is seeing “mushrooming” use of various Web 2.0 technologies, which are becoming increasingly critical to accomplishing missions that require analysts to share intelligence, said Lewis Shepherd, chief of the DIA’s requirements and research group at the Pentagon.

The tools are helping the DIA meet the directives from the 9-11 Commission and other entities for intelligence agencies to “improve and deepen our collaborative work processes,” he said.

The DIA launched its first wiki, dubbed Intellipedia, in 2004 on the Defense Department’s Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, a top-secret network that links all of the government’s intelligence agencies.

“The collaboration potential of the social software side is really being thoroughly vetted and is now rapidly being adopted,” Shepherd said. “Across agencies, wikis and blogs are becoming as ubiquitous as e-mail in terms of information sharing.”

Although the agency’s mission of providing intelligence to support military planning and weapons acquisition is often fodder for spy novels or Hollywood blockbusters, Shepherd said the DIA’s analysts are similar to workers in other industries in that “they rely upon and demand instant gratification” for their information needs.

“One of the virtues of a wiki format is that there is a blurred line between authoring and dissemination,” he added. “The second something is authored, someone else can edit it [and others can] comment upon those edits.”

The agency is also escalating its use of Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, better known as AJAX. The programming method uses JavaScript within the client to build applications that are more interactive than pages built with HTML and that don’t need to refresh a Web page every time a user enters or receives new data.

Last year, the DIA began a project to create a data access layer using a service-oriented architecture to pull together human intelligence (data gathered by people) and publicly available data gathered from the Internet and other sources into a single environment for analysis, Shepherd added.

‘Top-Secret Mashups’

Analysis of data in this new environment will be done in part using Web 2.0 applications, such as “mashups,” which collect data sources such as RSS feeds, Internet maps and information from the DIA network, Shepherd said. Users can access those mashups with a lightweight AJAX front end, he added.

“Web 2.0 mashup fans on the Internet would be very much at home in the burgeoning environment of top-secret mashups, which use in some cases Google Earth and in some cases other geosp

Continued...
1 | 2 | NEXT  

Print this Story

Send Us Feedback

E-mail this Story

Digg this Story

Slashdot this Story

"IoSafe is a company that, up until now, has provided enterprise-level disaster-safe storage. It is now entering the consumer market..." Read more... "A study by Careercast.com identifies the best and worst jobs, based on salary and outlook, as well as factors such..." Read more... Read more Development posts or See all Blogs

FAQ: How to get the Windows 7 beta Windows 7 public beta to be available Friday E-mail snafu exposes names of confidential witnesses in federal probe More top stories...

CES: Palm Pre features touch screen, new OS Complete coverage: CES 2009 Scandal raises questions about Satyam's ability to retain U.S. customers

The 9 hottest skills for '09 The downturn has softened the IT talent market but done little to weaken demand for SAP, .Net and other technical skills. Fast fixes for common PC problems Every computer user hits a speed bump now and then. Here are some speedy, simple solutions to hardware, software, network, Internet and mobile-device crises. Apple's 5 biggest moments in 2008 From the iPhone 3G to 'unibody' MacBooks, 2008 was a standout year for Apple. Hands-on Linux: New distro versions push the envelope We've got reviews and videos of the new Ubuntu 8.10, Fedora 10 and openSUSE 11.1. Windows 7 Get the latest news, reviews and more about Microsoft's newest desktop operating system More Continuing Coverage Windows 7 Voting Technology Google's Chrome browser Economy in turmoil: Latest news and tips iPhone 3G Bill Gates moves on Windows Vista A to Z Mac A to Z 2008 Salary Survey Find wage data for 50 IT job titles. More Special Reports 2009 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2008 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2007 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2008 Best Places to Work in IT 2007 Best Places to Work in IT 2008 Salary Survey 2007 Salary Survey 2006 Salary Survey 2008 IT Forecast 2007 IT Forecast 40 Years of Computerworld Top 12 Green-IT Users The FAQs About Going Green IT Schools to Watch iPhone: One Year Later Global Mobile Your Next Data Center Management: Reinventing IT Stop Data Leaks Web 2.0 Security Surviving Disasters Managing Storage Virtualization The Lean Storage Machine Storage on Trial Can Web 2.0 Save BI? Bypass These BI Potholes All Zones Business Continuity Zone The File Data Management Zone Security Management Zone The SAS Zone Business Intelligence and Analytics Zone The Enterprise Search Zone Software as a Service Zone The Security Zone See your link here

Computerworld Technology Briefing: Intelligent Users Use Business Intelligence Download this Technology Briefing for a limited time! (Source: Computerworld) Would you like to extend the use of Business Intelligence (BI) to more of your business functions? Would you also like to enhance your BI systems to provide both analysis and recommendations? Download this executive briefing  Best Practices for Delivering Virtual Classroom Training Download this white paper, compliments of Adobe, for a limited time! (Source: Adobe) How can you encourage people to listen, and even better, absorb your presentation? How will you know your audience is engaged? This paper provides suggestions and pitfalls that can increase your effectiveness when you're training a remote audience. Download this white paper  What's Next? Real Answers for Tough Times What's Next? Real Answers for Tough Times A crystal ball won't provide the answers you need. View this on demand webcast, compliments of Sterling Commerce, for a limited time! Go to the webcast  White Papers Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. 802.11n Drives an Architectural Evolution Why Your Firewall, VPN, and IEEE 802.11i Aren't Enough to Protect Your Network INSPIRE Your Audience: 7 Keys to Influential Presentations View more whitepapers

• FAQ: How to get the Windows 7 beta
• CES: Palm Pre features touch screen, new OS
• Windows 7 public beta to be available Friday
• More top stories 

Security Directions: Strategies and Tactics for Protecting Your Enterprise in 2009 Attend the Security Directions virtual event, with sessions available live on December 16, 2008 and available on-demand from December 17 though March 17, 2009. Some topics that will be covered include: Best Practices around Data Leak Prevention (DLP). What exactly is security due diligence and why does it matter? Cloud security and privacy. End-point security - rising gas prices have caused an increase in the number of remote workers, which leads to more security issues. Register now for this event that happens on December 16, 2008, but will also available on-demand from December 17 - March 17, 2009. Register Now!

• Report: Microsoft to do free Windows 7 upgrades

• Asus debuts S121 netbook with Windows 7 and 512GB SSD

• Mike Elgan: The wristwatch strikes back!

Read more news 

• Twitchy users, rebooting computers

• Does it have to be on?

Read more Shark Bait 

Best Practices for Delivering Virtual Classroom Training How can you encourage people to listen, and even better, absorb your presentation? How will you know your audience is engaged? This paper provides suggestions and pitfalls that can increase your effectiveness when you're training a remote audience. Download this white paper now!