Web n ruminations for the IC

Whatever network one routinely uses to conduct the business of intelligence analysis and production, the idea of Web n technologies and innovation has certainly begun to creep into common discourse within the community. Whether through Intellipedia, A-Space, reputation systems, or other still emerging variants of the wiki and the blog, there has been an encouraging degree of movement in recent years.

We are unabashed fans of experimentation in these areas. Unfortunately, too few times have the results of these experiments been examined with a dispassionate eye, nor recorded in formal publication – particularly by those not immediately involved in acting as proponents for the new technology. This alone has meant the art and science cannot advance beyond the basics of advocacy in this area, and into the hard business of implementation, refinement, and normalization. To move forward an idea is to find its flaws and correct its weaknesses through repeated efforts, rather than the repetition of the same effort.

We thus hope the new Mercyhurst Intelligence Studies program’s student blog at Web 2.0 and the Intelligence Community will evolve beyond mere advocacy and into solid academic research into the effectiveness and limitations of the tools and techniques of the driving philosophy of the next generation Web. It is fitting perhaps that it is not the established academics that will lead such research, but rather the students themselves – the next generation of professionals which will soon enough enter the community but who already demand the very cutting edge of commercial best practices.


h/t once again to Haft of the Spear, and to Zenpundit for the reference to A-Space at Network Weaving