February 2012 – Page 23 – Public Intelligence Blog

2012/02/102012/02/10

Review: Too Big to Know – Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room

5 Star, Best Practices in Management, Culture, Research, Decision-Making & Decision-Support, Information Operations, Information Society, Intelligence (Public), Public Administration, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution

David Weinberger

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple Enough to Shake the Most Obtuse Leaders, February 10, 2012

First the disclosures. I asked for a copy of this book to review, David Weinberger being one of my heroes and I being unemployed at this time. They gave it to me and now that I have read it, I will be donating it to the Oakton, VA public library.

Second, the subtitle. The subtitle of the book captures the entire field perfectly, and richly merits emphasis: “Rethinking knowledge now that the facts aren't the facts, experts are everywhere, and the smartest person in the room is the room.” This is the final nail in the coffin of secret intelligence communities and companies devoted to proprietary software. There is nothing intelligent — nor substantively valuable — about “closed” environments if ones purpose is to optimize both the allocation of resources and outcomes beneficial to the public.

Third, the historical context. Many people have been focused on the changing role of knowledge coming into the 21st century, and I list just five of the books below to make the point that in the context of all else, this book says it better, more easily graspable for the non-digital leaders struggling to decide where to go next –this book is highly relevant to the 1950's mind-set leaders of all eight tribes of intelligence: academic, civil society, commerce, government, law enforcement, media, military, and non-governmental / non-profit.

The exemplar: The exemplary performer in the age of productivity
Radical Man: The Process of Psycho-Social Development
The Knowledge Executive
Infinite Wealth: A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era
Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century

Summarizing the book concisely: everything we do now with hierarchical organization, hoarded information, restricted accesses, and isolation from the full range of external sources and methods, is wrong for the times.

Here are the five recommendations the author discusses in his last chapter, every single one of them poorly addressed by most organizations, and especially those that are highly bureaucraticized:

Continue reading “Review: Too Big to Know – Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room”

2012/02/102016/03/25

Robert Steele: Intelligent Management of Intelligence Agencies, and the New Craft of Intelligence

Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Collaboration Zones, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Computer/online security, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Ethics, Geospatial, Hacking, History, Information Operations (IO), Intelligence (government), Key Players, Methods & Process, Officers Call, Open Government, Policies, Real Time, Reform, Resilience, Serious Games, Strategy, Technologies, Threats, Waste (materials, food, etc), Whole Earth Review

steele formal high res — Robert David STEELE Vivas

I have begun drafting my portion of the new Handbook of Intelligence Studies (Routledge, 2013), it is a chapter early on entitled “The Craft of Intelligence.” I pick up where Allen Dulles and Sherman Kent left off. My graphic on Intelligence Maturity captures the essence of my thinking at the strategic level, but of course there is more to come, including the desperate need to restore integrity to all that we do.

In 1988 I ghost-wrote for the Commandant of the Marine Corps an article that he enhanced and signed, “Global Intelligence Challenges in the 1990's.” At that time my focus was on the difference between the conventional threat and the emerging unconventional threat.

Now my focus is on the purpose and process of intelligence as decision-support. We must — we will — move from secret intelligence for the few to open intelligence for the many; from expensive centralized largely worthless intelligence to free and low-cost distributed intelligence relevant to every person at every level on every issue; from intelligence as window-dressing for channeling $80 billion a year to banks and corporations, to intelligence as an integral element of every aspect of a Smart Nation.

Today Owl sent me a link to an article, Philip E. Tetlock and Barabara A Mellers, “Intelligent Management of Intelligence Agencies,” American Psychologist, 2011, pp. 1-12. I respect Owl, so I printed it and read it twice.

This article is completely out of touch with reality and the authors have not bothered to familiarize themselves with the literatures pertinent to their endeavor. Out of 89 cited sources 12 are non-intelligence-related prior publications of the lead author, 1 is a prior publication of the second author, and 11 are ostensibly about intelligence but truly marginal selections. So 12% sources on the subject, 13% self-citation, and 75% escoteric psycho-babble irrelevant to the actual challenge. As an intelligence professional, I am offended that two ostensibly erudite individuals would dare to publish this trype without even a semblance of understanding of the subject under discussion.

Here are a few comments and additional links:

Continue reading “Robert Steele: Intelligent Management of Intelligence Agencies, and the New Craft of Intelligence”

2012/02/102012/02/10

Worth a Look: Increasing Anxiety Over Israeli False-Flag Attack on US Navy to Start War on Iran

IO Deeds of War

Bill Sardi-thumb-172x172-1804 — Bill Sardi

What if the News Media Reports Missiles Launched From the Iranian Coast Hit a US Aircraft Carrier With Deaths and Casualties?

“We interrupt this broadcast for an important News bulletin…. We take you to reporter Manfred Smith on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Persian Gulf for this special report.” (Reporter Smith) “I’m here on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln where casualties are being taken from the USS Carl Vinson which sustained damage earlier today in a shocking pre-dawn attack on US Naval forces here in the Persian Gulf. At least one hundred body bags are now housed in a makeshift morgue below decks, and casualties are running in the hundreds. Radar tracking shows evidence of sea-skimming missiles, likely shoulder-fired, possibly as many as three launched from the coast of Iran, that struck the Vinson amidships. You can see in the distance smoke billowing from the USS Vinson now some six hours after the sudden surprise attack. US Navy authorities said the close proximity of the ship to the coast made it impossible to defend against this missile attack. The USS Eisenhower remains positioned 30 miles further away from Iran’s coast than the USS Vinson. US military authorities are saying a swift and decisive retaliatory blow against Iran is now underway and US military aircraft are now attacking pre-determined military targets with full force. Iranian authorities in Tehran issued a denial of their involvement in the attack, but an Iranian mullah is claimed to have said, I quote: ‘This should serve the Great Satan notice they don’t belong here.’ Iranian President Ahmadinejad had previously warned Iran would retaliate against sanctions imposed by the US on his country. This is Manfred Smith with XXX News aboard the USS Eisenhower in the Persian Gulf.”

If the American public were suddenly shocked by the news that three shoulder-fired missiles launched from the coast of Iran had hit a US aircraft carrier in the Straits of Hormuz and killed 200 navy personnel, would even one American question whether this report was accurate in its assumption that the regime in Iran was behind the missile attack?

How easy it would be for any party that wanted to instigate war to place saboteurs on Iran’s coast to aim shoulder-fired missiles at a US aircraft carrier positioned near the Straits of Hormuz where a third of the world’s oil tankers pass every day.

Read full article with past examples of false flag attacks starting wars.

2012/02/10

Worth a Look: Liars and Outliers – Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive (Bruce Schneier)

5 Star, Information Society, Worth A Look

How does society function when you can't trust everyone?

When we think about trust, we naturally think about personal relationships or bank vaults. That's too narrow. Trust is much broader, and much more important. Nothing in society works without trust. It's the foundation of communities, commerce, democracy—everything.

In this insightful and entertaining book, Schneier weaves together ideas from across the social and biological sciences to explain how society induces trust. He shows how trust works and fails in social settings, communities, organizations, countries, and the world.

In today's hyper-connected society, understanding the mechanisms of trust is as important as understanding electricity was a century ago. Issues of trust and security are critical to solving problems as diverse as corporate responsibility, global warming, and our moribund political system. After reading Liars and Outliers, you'll think about social problems, large and small, differently.

AUTHOR BIO

BRUCE SCHNEIER is an internationally renowned security technologist who studies the human side of security. He is the author of eleven books; and hundreds of articles, essays, and academic papers. He has testified before Congress, is a frequent guest on television and radio, and is regularly quoted in the press. His blog and monthly newsletter at www.schneier.com reach over devoted 250,000 devoted readers world-wide.

“The closest thing the security industry has to a rock star.”
—The Register

Phi Beta Iota: Brother Schneier is not normally associated with coercion as a solution, and he is plain wrong to advance this thesis in the book. Transparency, and an educated public that embraces the truth for the right reasons, is how you achieve scalable trust.

Robert Garigue at Phi Beta Iota

Robert David Steele, THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth, & Trust (Evolver Editions, 5 June 2012)

2012/02/10

John Robb: Four Sources of Trust, Crypto Not Scaling….

Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Computer/online security, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Methods & Process, Officers Call, Policies, Threats

Why The Global System is Killing Trust

Posted: 09 Feb 2012 03:35 PM PST

Trust is an essential building block of any economic and social system. Systems that attempt to operate without it inevitably fail. A loss of trust typically preceeds a collapse in legitimacy.

That's our future. Here's why:

Let's start with a philosopher “king” of crypt0-security, Bruce Schneier. He has a new book out called Liars and Outliers: Eneabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive (Wiley, 2012).

The book is all about the mechanisms for building trust. There are four mechanisms:

moral controls,
reputational pressure (shame),
institutional pressure (legal system), and
security controls (encryption, locks, etc.).

He contends (rightly) that in the modern world, we don't typically make/have the personal relationships required to build moral and reputational trust. We typically make impersonal relationships when we interact with a global economic system (you buy stuff made by people you don't know). As a result, we rely up on institutional (legal compliance) and security (to guard against bad behavior) to provide the level of trust necessary to make the global economy work.

There are two massive problems with that.

Legal compliance is increasingly a farce. Take the mortgage settlement the US government and the financial industry reached over rampant fraud in mortgage lending. I wrote a bit more about it on the Resilient Community blog if you want more detail. What does this mean? That even at the national level in a “developed country” it is impossible to use legal means to enforce trustworthiness (let's not even talk about compliance at the global level). It's doesn't work anymore. It's just too easy for anybody with financial means, to buy off country's legal system for pennies on the dollar (to the damage caused). The compliance system is broken.

So, that leaves us with security as the only way to prevent bad actors from running away with the global system. This leads me to a great presentation I heard yesterday by Dan Geer. He's another philosopher “king” of crypto-security (but for the CIA). Very smart guy. He made a convincing case that security is scaling slower than data, bandwidth, node, and user growth. It is falling behind and will continue to fall behind as the global system grows.

Upshot: it's already nearly impossible to secure big organizations. Every Fortune 500 company has and will continue to compromised. The government's systems are already a sieve. There's almost nothing that can be done about it and it will get increasingly worse. Forget about securing a single person trying to connect to the global system. They are just sheep ready for slaughter.

So, what happens now?

The global system will continue to grow. Trust will continue to leak as attempts at compliance and security fail to work effectively. The economic depression we have already started gets worse and worse and worse. Disorder erupts. It grows….

Is there a solution? An alternative form of social order that can provide a scalable global solution?

Yes. Resilient communities. Resilient communities rescale your life down to a rational level. They make personal relationships with the people that economically interact with you possible (again).

Hey, let the rest of the world sink into the squalor of a trust free world. It will make that system easier to trounce in head to head competition for people.

See Also:

Robert David Steele, THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth, & Trust (Evolver Editions, 5 June 2012)

and

Robert Garigue at Phi Beta Iota

2012/02/102012/02/10

Chuck Spinney: For the Record – Government Complicit, Banks Walk Away from Mortgage Crimes with 1% Settlement

Uncategorized

The Top Twelve Reasons Why You Should Hate the Mortgage Settlement

Yves Smith, Naked Capitalism, 9 Feb 2012

As readers may know by now, 49 of 50 states have agreed to join the so-called mortgage settlement, with Oklahoma the lone refusenik. Although the fine points are still being hammered out, various news outlets (New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal) have details, with Dave Dayen’s overview at Firedoglake the best thus far.

The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that the SEC is about to launch some securities litigation against major banks. Since the statue of limitations has already run out on securities filings more than five years old, this means they’ll clip the banks for some of the very last (and dreckiest) deals they shoved out the door before the subprime market gave up the ghost.

The various news services are touting this pact at the biggest multi-state settlement since the tobacco deal in 1998. While narrowly accurate, this deal is bush league by comparison even though the underlying abuses in both cases have had devastating consequences.

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: For the Record – Government Complicit, Banks Walk Away from Mortgage Crimes with 1% Settlement”

2012/02/10

Worth a Look: Good to Be King – On the USA Constitution

6 Star Top 10%, America (Founders, Current Situation), Democracy, Worth A Look

This book provides readers with the fundamentals of the Constitution by analyzing the legitimate basis for government, and the circumstances that lead to its ratification. Mr. Badnarik starts with fundamentals, identifying the difference between rights and privileges. He discusses the critical- and needed- distinction between republican and democratic systems of government, arguing that freedom can survive in America only if we return to our republican roots. He also illustrates the forgotten tenets of federalism and states' rights, arguing that federal usurpation of state power has accelerated the loss of our freedoms. The author then provides a detailed explication of the true meaning of major constitutional provisions and amendments.He does an excellent job of demystifying our founding document, demonstrating that ordinary Americans can and should understand the Constitution and how it applies to their lives.

Michael was born in Hammond, Indiana, and attended Indiana University in Bloomington. A computer programmer and technical trainer who lives in Austin, Texas, Michael was nominated in May, 2004 as the Libertarian Party's Presidential Candidate for the November national election.

Phi Beta Iota: Out of print at this time, used copies are available at outrageous prices. We are working on getting the author connected to CreateSpace for producing the book on demand at a reasonable right.