Title of Presentation: The Open Source Everything Manifesto: Transparency, Truth, & Trust
Presenter: Robert David Steele
Short Description: The Open Source Everything Manifesto is presented in the context of key negative and postive trends and the imminent revolution in the USA of the 99% against the 1%. Specific solutions are proposed for the restoration of public agency — power back to the people — including an open source ecology, the six bubble concept of the Earth Intelligence Network, a new approach to a self-healing watermarked cyber-commons. A School of Future-Oriented Hybrid Governance, the World Brain Institute, the Open Source Agency, and the United National Open-Source Decision-Support Information Network are presented — all of them seeking a home in New York City.
Bio: Robert David Steele is a former Marine Corps infantry officer, former spy, co-founder of the Marine Corps Intelligence Command, and former CEO of Open Source Solutions Network, Inc. Today he is CEO of Earth Intelligence Network, and the #1 Amazon reviewer for non-ficiton, reading in 98 categories.
Security is a universal entitlement and a core part of human well-being. Where people cannot enjoy security, poverty and injustice are prevalent in other forms. Many major reports and policy initiatives in recent years have not only built strong evidence to underpin these claims, but they have also affirmed the need to foster a concept of security which puts people at its centre. When Saferworld has consulted people on what security means to them in different countries, the answer is always unique and specific to the context.
With this in mind, Saferworld has developed an approach that explains the principles underpinning Community Security interventions, and suggests practical implementation strategies that draw on our work and the work of a select number of agencies. The handbook is aimed at both policy makers and practitioners – particularly programme managers – and intends to help them work through the steps involved in planning, implementing, evaluating and improving Community Security interventions. It sets out the objectives of Saferworld’s Community Security work, explains why we see it as important, and draws together a significant body of learning and experience that ties together the theory and practice behind interconnected peace, conflict, security and development interventions.
Steele found that close to 90% of the needed relevant information for government operations and decision-support is available from public sources in 183 languages, but not collected, processed, or analyzed by the structured official intelligence community. He realized that embracing the open source community allows for greater exchange of information and more efficient use of taxpayer funds.
Robert David STEELE Vivas
Open Source provides a platform that is affordable, interoperable, and scalable. Steele contends that secrets are not the same as knowledge, and that the Open Source Approach will help to curtail government waste relating to the desire to collection for the sake of collection.
Through his discussion with Michael Ostrolenk Steele explains how using common sense and open source techniques, the U.S. Government can adopt proven methods in the field by Steele over 25 years ago to have a leaner, more effective, more efficient, and more transparent intelligence Community.
I was thinking this morning about how little has changed since I was a founding member of the Advanced Information Processing and Analysis Steering Group (AIPASG) and also a member of the Information Handling Committee (IHC) for the US secret world (late 1980's early 1990's).
I note in passing my continued dismay as I see — year after year — papers that address the problem without doing their homework. In relation to just two of the eight factors below (proessing), I note that one paper, “Top Ten Needs for Intelligence Analysis Tool Development“(Batelle, 2009) did a nice day's work without ever discovering the original four requirements documents (CIA, USMC, 1989). Worse, I am seeing papers today about to be published, that themselves take the 2009 article at face value without having a clue that there is so much more work that has been done….and been ignored by intelligence community seniors. Everyone goes through the motions. NGA means well but it will never accomplish what it claims to be already be doing. Ask them when their cave will be at the White House. At OMB. At CIA or DIA. At a theater command. In Afghanistan. The truthful answer is “not in my lifetime.”
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NGA's ideas are very expensive non-inter-operable, bandwidth-impossible, non-scalable day dreams. Saying — as was said today at AFIO — that the NRO is responsible for all the big data hard stuff — the pipes, the speeds, the feeds — is an unprofessional cop-out. Even the idea of reversing the 75-25 ratio between legacy government software and COTS is wrong headed — only open source everything is affordable, interoperable, and scalable. What NGA leadership does not know about nuts and bolts is troubling. If the next USDI goes down this path, our analysts will continue to be the redheaded step kids locked in the closet with a sock in their mouth — and our strategists, policy-makers, acquisition managers, and operational commanders will continue to be (as Mike Flynn was and remains) screwed by a system that cares more about keeping the money moving than it does about serving our troops and those that train, organize, and equip our national capabilities. CrisisMappers, humanitarian UAVs, non-US commercially-created geospatial, and unfettered multinational open sources are all part of the solution — and are all banned from discussion within the US secret world.
When things are not going well, until you get the truth out on the table, no matter how ugly, you are not in a position to deal with it. Bob Seelert, Chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide (New York)
Below is my rough take on where the US Intelligence Community stands today on analytic excellence. The green outside the IC borders represents all of the possibilities that are actively and inexpensively present.
I worked with four quadrants, as is my custom.
Quadrant A: Source Diversity and Source Integrity
Quadrant B: Processing Big Data and Processing Desktop
Quadrant C: Analyst Education & Training and Analyst Outreach
Quadrant D: Analyst Access to Deciders and Deciders Integrity
This paper aims to enhance the impact of UK support to policing assistance programmes. Different contexts demonstrate diverse demands, which require different solutions. This paper seeks to ensure that UK assistance to policing is always:
Based on common principles and international standards.
Responsive to the local context.
Informed by, and informs, the UK’s political strategies and priorities.
Clear in its intended strategic impact and outcomes.
Grounded in an empirical understanding of what works in order to generate value for money.
Developed and managed effectively and efficiently.
Dover, R & Steele, RD (2014) Intelligence and National Strategy? Rethinking Intelligence: Seven Barriers to Reform, Paper presented the UK Political Studies Association Annual Conference, Manchester (14 Arpil 2014).
Robert Steele
ROBERT STEELE: An Open Source Agency would be helpful but I was naive to expect the US IC to want to do the right thing — or any Cabinet Member to actually want decision-support. Had I known in 1994 what I know today, I would have taken this approach in the first place as a second track, demonstrating the value of decision-support across each of the eight tribes, none of whom do holistic analytics and true cost economics decision-support now. With this piece we begin a new 20-year campaign to teach the willing how do the right thing instead of the wrong things more expensively (Ackoff, 2004). I am looking for a single university that will fund my PhD proposal and also launch a campaign to raise $100 million to create a School of Future-Oriented Hybrid Governance and a World Brain Institute.
