Begin forwarded message:
From: "Mario Profaca" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: August 9, 2008 10:38:45 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [SPY NEWS] Wiki-spy
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.cio-weblog.com/50226711/wikispy.php
Wiki-spy
Filed in archive Enterprise Software
by Scott Wilson on August 09, 2008
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Angel Herrero de Frutos
Speaking of Enterprise 2.0, it seems that the CIA is well on board
with the trend. I don't know if the director filled out the recent
McKinsey survey or not. But the organization seems to be ahead of the
pack when it comes to wiki implementations
The intelligence community reportedly suffered a considerable shake-up
in the wake of 9/11 and the tools and techniques for information
sharing within the various agencies were among the factors identified
by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks as contributing to the
failure to prevent the attacks. Accordingly, organizational changes
were made to reduce the difficulty of secure information sharing. That
was difficult enough to accomplish in the face of determined
opposition from the old guard operators, but the technical changes are
even longer in coming.
A series of articles in CIO magazine has been chronicling the agency's
progression in technology adoption, providing an unusually candid look
behind the scenes. One of the more interesting systems they have
described is the "Intellipedia," a wiki product accessible to 40,000
users in the intelligence community which serves all the traditional
purposes of a wiki, only instead of contributing and reviewing
articles about Paris Hilton, staffers presumably surf the net gleaning
details about Osama Bin Laden's latest styles and trends.
One advantage the CIA has over commercial enterprise in the adoption
of such new technology is the relative youth of its workforce: half
the agency's staff are new, spurred in by the combined impetus of 9/11
and a renewed focus on intelligence funding. While convincing existing
staff to adopt newfangled widgets like wikis can be a chore, new staff
coming in can be trained on just about anything-and younger users are
more comfortable with Web 2.0 concepts and tools.
Unfortunately, it's even more difficult to determine the results of
such projects in the classified world than in the enterprise... leaks
don't just get you fired, but can result in jail time. But according
to the CIO, Al Tarasiuk, things are working well, and the tech
transition is helping keep us safer.
