Intelligence: If you’re not ahead of the threat, you’re only reacting to it

Intelligence:If you’re not ahead of the threat, you’re only reacting to it!

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I was able to attend the conference. FWIW, here are some notes.

There were a lot of great ideas and a lot of enthusiasm generated amongst those participating. It also seemed that many analysts enjoyed a venue to meet others in the community to exchange contact information and tell war stories. For others, they were happy to be let out of the basement if only for a few days. Many of the programs/initiatives were very compelling but sadly were less innovative than they are catch ups. Intellipedia seemed to be a great tool for those (with access) that need some quick information or an environment to build collaboration

with more legs. It also looked like INTELINK was evolving quickly.

Unfortunately most solutions looked like another technology patch to a human issue. Quite frankly, most of what was proposed in the way of virtual communities, younger analysts are already doing. (As a generalization) many of the more senior analysts, just a few years away from retirement, saw the changes as a new system/process to learn. A few at a table near me discussed the transformations as being more

rules and ways to link participation to performance management (i.e bureaucracy) and other ways that career-ists will involve themselves without having the expertise.

Positioning of the vision tended to target the ego of analysts. The transformation will allow more analysts to have their work seen in the community. It seemed to me, however, that those populating databases and doing data input will still not have a finished product to taut as their own...

Aside from the 101 training, little was mentioned on how to improve an analysts' writing and rigor. There was also little discussion on whether the new collaboration will make way for any new intel products

or dissemination mechanisms that are less formal/traditional. Nor was there consideration on how to get intel products out the door faster or ways to anticipate future needs. Intel team managers still expressed concern about the spending involved when they can't even obtain enough money to keep their people from leaving and going into private sector.

Off the cuff remarks included transforming DIA's parking situation as an improvement for analysts.

Human Factor/Human Terrain was mentioned as "a new concept" but when a question was posed on it, few could comment aside from the word culture".

Most concerning to me was a complete lack of security. There were a number of serious heavy hitters from the IC and high value analysts. Chicago media had in the papers and radio announcements comments of "the spies being in town--over 300 Washington spooks on the second floor of the Sheridan hotel." Forget about looking for someone suspicious when every hotel worker had shady shifty eyes trying to see who was the real James Bond. With all the laptops in the room there

was an abundance of briefcases/satchels coming, going, and being left behind while the supposed owner excused themselves. One CI guy at my table stated his head was going to explode from all of the indicators and warnings going off in his mind.

On the first day after lunch the conference attendee lists were left out on the registration table completely unattended, which had even caught the eye of some media folks. I personally picked the lists up

and delivered them directly to the conference chair.

Apple pie was great on the second day.

For those of you that are unaware of what we are talking about, here is a brief summary.

Chicago was the site of a jointly sponsored Analytic Transformation symposium, hosted by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA). The charter of the gathering was to collectively start

transforming federal agencies’ siloed intelligence role to one of a Community.

The “Intelligence Revolution” as described by Deputy DNI for Analysis, Thomas Fingar, will ensure that the IC provides the best and most timely, most accurate, most useful analytic insight to all its customers (policymakers, war fighters, and first responders) or risk diminishing returns on trust and capabilities to the point of replacement by the private sector.

Some driving points centered around three areas:

1. Enhancing Quality of Analytic Products through continued education and peer review;

2. Managing the Mission at a Community level by anticipating future needs;

3. Building more Integrated Analytic Operations that will be tied by collaborative work environments and unified repositories, regardless of classification.

The venue was attended by members of the US Intelligence Community (IC) largely populated with employees in analytic or technology roles. Also

attending were a host of consulting vendors who were likely interested in learning what new changes should be anticipated as a disruptor to current projects and what transformations could be business development

opportunities. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal were covering the event as well. All attending the event had an opportunity to comment on current initiatives or suggest more innovative concepts.

Scott

> (Submitted by Larry Cosgriff)

>

> Federal Computer Week

>

> Intelligence community to act as one

>

> BY Jason Miller

> Published on Sept. 5, 2007

>

> CHICAGO - The intelligence community's move to a > network-centric environment should receive a boost in the next year as two avenues of change move closer together.

>

> The first effort involves training younger analysts to not only look for information , but to find meaning in the data. At the same time, officials want to assist middle managers in using new methods to analyze information.

>

> Once the analysts understand how to find useful information, they must view the entire intelligence community as one enterprise and share what they found through collaborative work spaces, such as Intellipedia, blogs and the developing A-Space initiative.

>

> "We have to make the intelligence community an enterprise with the same broad mission," said Thomas Fingar, deputy director for national intelligence for analysis in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). "The goal is not to take 18,000 analysts and put them in the same room, but find a better way to keep them in their centers of expertise, but still sharing information."

>

> Fingar, speaking at the Analytical Transformation Conference, sponsored by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, also said the intelligence community wants to develop a distributed network that would incorporate different layers of information.

>

> "Each person would work on layers that are available to all others so now we would have that 'ah-ha' moment," Fingar said. "We must improve the analytical tradecraft with training programs to ensure the quality of work continues to improve."

>

> To accomplish that, the intelligence community started a course called Analysis 101, he said. It will provide the same training to all new analysts.

>

> Fingar said Analysis 101 began earlier this year. By December, 700 students will finish the coursework, and the course will be open to 1,200 students next year.

>

> "We are addressing shortcomings that were identified by Congress and others and through our evaluations," Fingar said. "We need to utilize alternative analysis more and other areas."

>

> In addition to training, ODNI is leading work on several initiatives to build the infrastructure to enable collaboration.

>

> ODNI kicked off a project late last month to reduce the amount of metadata each database uses. The effort, called Catalyst, will try to bring the hundreds of metadata tags down to five or six, said Mike Wertheimer, deputy DNI for analytic transformation and technology.

>

> "We want to filter out superfluous information," he said. "This is totally experimental."

>

> For the next three months ODNI and the National Counterterrorism Center will apply Catalyst to the six databases the center runs, put real events through the about five metadata categories and see what comes out, starting in early 2008, Wertheimer said.

>

> ODNI also issued analyst standards and will issue sourcing standards, Wertheimer added.

>

> Finally, ODNI is expanding its Research and Development Center (RDec) to unclassified users instead of only those with clearances.

>

> RDec lets users test analytical tools on a closed system. Wertheimer said they have about 100 nodes on the classified network, which is oversubscribed by intelligence employees, but there are not enough people on it to test the tools for the entire community.

>

> "If we run an unclassified network parallel to the classified one, I think we can bring enough people on to test tools," he said. "Once we agree on a tool, we will certify and accredit it once instead of 16

> times. We can just plug the tool in for the entire community."

>

> The RDec work started this year, but Wertheimer wasn't sure when ODNI would expand it to the unclassified network.