http://www.gcn.com/cgi-bin/udt/im.display.printable?client.id=gcn_daily <http://www.gcn.com/cgi-bin/udt/im.display.printable?client.id=gcn_daily&sto ry.id=42604> &story.id=42604 Open-source intelligence moving to the fore 11/16/06 -- 10:48 AM By Patience Wait, <http://media1.gcn.com/accipiter/adclick/CID=00002398f10ec1ae00000000/site=g cn/area=PRINTER_FRIENDLY/pos=BOX_R1/aamsz=336x280/content=/acc_random=775876 /pageid=775876> KISSIMMEE, Fla. - The development and sharing of open-source information may be the first arena where true collaboration among all the agencies in the intelligence community - a requirement in the post-9/11 world - takes hold. At least, Douglas Naquin, director of the Open Source Center in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is working hard to make it come true. Naquin told the audience attending the GeoINT 2006 conference that John Negroponte, the director of National Intelligence, believes that "open source can be the first manifestation of an integrated community." The OSC was established just a year ago, incorporating as its foundation the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a division of the CIA. Its mission is to mine "the world's unguarded knowledge," from all the channels available - the Internet, print, broadcast media, podcasts, anything that contains information, in any language, from any country - and glean all the data contained there. The data is archived, and OSC analysts can then draw upon it in response to queries from all levels of government; Naquin said that in addition to the intelligence community, the center fields requests from the Defense Department, civilian agencies and state and local law enforcement. In addition to fielding analytical requests, the center is looking to establish open-source "franchises" and providing training, technology guidance and best practices to other governmental operations that have their own needs for open-source information, Naquin said. There is such a large volume of information globally, this is one way to help cope with the magnitude of data, he said. Historically, the intelligence community has not been that interested in publicly available information; the emphasis has been on developing covert information. But "there just might be relatively - relatively - fewer secrets today," Naquin said. The advent of information channels such as blogs and YouTube increases the likelihood that something once considered secret will make its way into the public discourse, he said. The center also has taken pains to establish metrics to validate its usefulness, Naquin said. For instance, he set a target for this year that 25 percent of all the analysts trained in using open source should come from outside the CIA. "On Sept. 30 we met our target," he said. Another measure is in information sharing. The center tracks how many datasets it buys on behalf of agencies, so the metric is the economy of scale - how many agencies are saved the expense of purchasing the commercial data because they can access it through OSC. The upfront aim of measuring the center's success may be paying off. "This year... we have a plus-up in our base" budget, Naquin said. "The stars are aligned as well as they've been in my lifetime for open source." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
