De-centralized Intelligence Agency

This week I participated in a workshop with the CIA on blogs and wikis. What was fascinating was not just that the participants included Clay Shirky, David Weinberger, Jerry Michalski, Eugene Kim, Marcia Conner and Jay Cross. The agency perhaps has the greatest to gain from adopting social software, but also has the greatest hard coded structural barriers (need to know) and a culture that reprimands against participation. Nevertheless, an Intellipedia and blogging at all levels in the organization is burgeoning. There is a shared understanding that these tools, with the right practices and change in culture could transform intelligence from a manufacturing model that delivers reports to a complex adaptive system where intelligence is a conversation with decision makers, an inherently counter spin. To understand the potential, see Calvin Andrus’ “The Wiki and the Blog: Toward a Complex Adaptive Intelligence Community.” Also see posts by Eugene Kim, David Wienberger, JP and Mark Ohlert.

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