Communities of Practice – Page 3 – Public Intelligence Blog

Echo Chamber Project: Interviews at OSS '06

Praise for this effort

Submitted by Robert David Steele (not verified) on Sat, 2006-03-11 18:48.

I have never, in 18 years of OSINT advocacy, seen a more professional and intelligent endeavor to understand and report on what we are trying to do. This is absolutely world-class, and my admiration is unbounded. This creative individual has a lifetime free pass to our conferences. His technical, legal, and people skills are of the highest order.

+ + + + + + +

Kent's photo links to the ten video interviews he did at OSS '06, the last conference before it was stolen and consequently destroyed by an individual that broke his promise (one of several) and is fortuitously no longer responsible for anything of significance. All of the interviews are recommended, but then Congressman Simmons, now running for Senator in place of Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticutt, is especially noteworthy. No one in government has, in the twenty one years we have been fighting this fight, gotten a better grip not just on the idea of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) as a separate discipline, but on OSINT as a means of revitalizing American education, improving decision-support to every Congressional jurisdiction (most get NOTHING from the secret intelligence world), and helping the President and the Cabinet Secretaries manage Whole of Govenrment Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Operational Campaigns.

Among those interviewed that we hold in very high esteem are Michael Andregg, Carolyn Stewart, Mats Bjore, Ralph Peters, Robert Young Pelton, Stephen E. Arnold, and Peter Morville. There is also an interview with Robert Steele, who is not tagged within this website.

Below is a direct link to Kent Bye and a collage of clips from each of the people he interviewed. We consider this the single best most brilliant piece of citizen journalism on the concept of OSINT.

Below are the currently available links for audio only for all those interviewed:

Michael Andregg on Secrecy and Insanity

Stephen E Arnold on Technology

Mats Bjore on Globalization

Peter Morville on Ambient Findability

Robert Young Pelton on Hearing all Sides

Ralph Peters on Wars of Blood and Faith

Rob Simmons on the Big Picture for America

Robert Steele on Washington Running on 2%

Carolyn Stewart on Information Operations

Below links directly to the Simmons interview, use the photograph link above to select any of the others. NOTE: the video portion appears to have been disabled for all of them, you get audio only right now, we are working on this with Kent, it is vastly better to see these individuals in full multi-media form.

2006/12/292009/07/31

2006 Markowitz (US) Open Source Information and US Transitions to and from Hostilities (Defense Science Board Report, December 2004), in Relation to Information-Sharing with non-DoD and Froeign Parties

10 Security, Analysis, Budgets & Funding, Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Historic Contributions, Legislation, Policy, Strategy, Threats

NOTE: By “off the record” Dr. Markowitz has clarified that this information may be shared as we are sharing it, but those benefiting from our sharing should treat the knowledge as if they had acquired it “off the record,” as personal views that should not be attributed nor accepted as anything other than background perceptions.

PLATINUM LIFETIME AWARD, Dr. Joseph Markowitz

Dr. Joseph Markowitz is without question the most qualified Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) pioneer in the ranks of those presently in or retired from U.S. government service. As the only real chief of the Community Open Source Program Office (COSPO) he tried valiently to nurture a program being systematically undermined by both the leadership and the traditional broadcast monitoring service. When he moved on to advise the Defense Science Board, he served America well by helping them fully integrate the need for both defense open source information collection and exploitation, and defense information sharing with non-governmental organizations. His persistent but diplomatic efforts merit our greatest regard.

2006/12/282009/08/07

2006 Morville (UK) Ambient Findability Massive Scale Beyond Your Imagination A Recommedned Approach to Creating the World Brain with Instant Recall

Briefings (Core), Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Historic Contributions, Topics (All Other)

Peter Morville, resident in the US, is an information architect, pathfinder (we lose as much as we create), and visualizer of how best to connect dots to dots, dots to people, and people to people in the context of sharing information.

Below are the slides from his presentation to OSS '06.

2006/12/252009/07/31

2006 Reuser (NL) on Virtual Open Source Agency

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Historic Contributions, Topics (All Other)

2006/12/242009/08/07

2006 Sutton (US) Global Coverage, Looking Backward, Looking Forward

Briefings (Core), Budgets & Funding, Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Historic Contributions, Key Players, Policies, Strategy, Threats

Boyd Sutton was one of a handful of great intelligence community leaders who understood how to handle and get the most out of what CIA described as “self-starters” (they have up the idea after half of both classes quit within give years–go along bureaucrats are still the norm). He also had a huge mind, and went form being in charge of the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) vault dealing with all external technical programs (the Advanced Program and Evaluation Group) to being a senior executive at the National Reconaissance Office (NRO), and then a retiree consultant charged by then DNI George Tenet with establishing the requirements for Global Coverage–the answer: $10 million for each of 150 “lower tier” countries and issues including non-state actors and emerging threats, or $1.5 billion a year year–today that would be $3 billion. Boyd's contribution of the unclassified version of his study to the public, in the public interest, is a significant example of individual integrity in the service of the Republic.

Click on the Frog to connect to his original 1997 study slides and full text, all unclassified as released.

Challenge of Global Coverage Study for the DCI 1997

2006/12/222009/07/31

2006 Yekelo (ZA) Continental Early Warning & Information Sharing: A Military Perspective on Deterring & Resolving Complex Emergencies

Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, Historic Contributions, Peace Intelligence

South Africa, Military and Civilian Intelligence Community

IOP '06 Under the general leadership of Minister of Intelligence Services Ronnie Kasrils, in partnership with an extraordinary collection of individuals across all elements of the South African intelligence community, and across all countries in the continent of Africa, successfully implemented both an open source software strategy, and an early warning and open source information sharing strategy. Their continental initiative, in its openness, low cost, and mutually beneficial architecture, sets the standard for multinational, multiagency, multidisciplinary, multidomain information sharing (M4 IS).

When Nelson Mandela ended arpartheid and an integrated government was formed, the very best of the revolutionaries of color went into intelligence. President “JZ” Zuma of South Africa is himself director of intelligence for the ANC in exile and resistance. They inherited a brand new campus built by the previous regime, and the South African National Academy of Intelligence (SANAI) has proven to be both an internal and a continental asset. It introduced Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) in the 1990's, and understood far sooner than most that OSINT and the traditional secret collection disciplines have to interact “as with a DNA spiral” in the words of the Director General of National Intelligence at the time.

Representing Minister Kasrils at OSS '06 was Brigadier General Gordon Mzwandile Yekelo, Director, Doctrine Development, Joint Operations Division, South African Armed Forces, who shared his views on “Continental Early Warning & Information Sharing: A Military Perspective on Deterring & Resolving Complex Emergencies.” Today, in 2009, SANAI is about to offer world-class training to the eight tribes of intelligence across all of Africa, and with integrity and persistence, may yet create a Smart Continent Of, By, and For Africans.

2005/06/262009/08/06

2005 Simmons (US) Puts Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) into Intelligence Reform Legislation

Government, Historic Contributions

Representative Rob Simmons (R-CT-02) Obtains 417 House Votes In Favor of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) as Essential Part of Reform Effort

WASHINGTON, June 26 /PRNewswire/ — According to Robert David Steele Vivas, CEO of OSS.Net, Inc., a global commercial intelligence corporation, “Representative Rob Simmons is going to be a vital contributor to Congressional deliberations on reform of the U.S. Intelligence Community.” The House of Representatives passed by a vote of 417 to 1 his amendment to bolster our national security and strengthen our nation's intelligence capabilities. The Simmons amendment directs the Director of Central Intelligence to focus on the importance of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), and report to Congress in six months on the progress being made in using this under-utilized intelligence discipline. The lawmaker's amendment was incorporated into H.R. 4548, the “Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005,” which passed the House by a vote of 360-61. According to Steele, “The Simmons amendment enables a conference discussion on OSINT, and makes possible the establishment of a national OSINT program as part of the final legislation. We who have advocated OSINT reform since 1988 are explicitly seeking $125 million per year for an independent field activity of the Department of Defense, with $10 million per year multinational OSINT collection centers in each theater of operations.”

“The ‘information explosion' has dramatically increased both the quality and quantity of the information available in the public sector,” Simmons said. “Because this information is unclassified, it can be shared quickly and freely, and acted upon. Unfortunately, our country's intelligence service has under-utilized OSINT. The time has come to revisit the importance of Open Source Intelligence. It not only saves time and money, it saves lives.”

ABOUT CONGRESSMAN ROB SIMMONS: Congressman Rob Simmons served 37 years in the U.S. Army, starting as a Private and retiring in 2003 as a Colonel. He earned two Bronze Star Medals for his service in Vietnam. He is one of only two Members of Congress with clandestine experience, serving ten years in the CIA's Directorate of Operations. He worked with Senator Barry Goldwater and with Bill Casey from 1981-1985, while Staff Director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He is a member of the House Armed Services Committee. His press representative is Meghan Curran, who can be reached at (202) 225-2076.

Category: Communities of Practice

Journal: Worth a Look–the Echo Chamber Project