IO Impotency – Page 201 – Public Intelligence Blog

Half-full, glass is.

Hillary Clinton Helps Silicon Valley on Her Way Out the Door

Elizabeth Dwoskin

BloombergBusinessWeek, 4 February 2013

Taking the podium in the State Department’s Ben Franklin Room one last time on Thursday before stepping down, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thanked lots of people, offered reminiscences, and announced a flurry of last-minute initiatives. “We’re all like one millisecond away from just collapsing here, because of the emotion and the feelings that are coursing through all of us,” Clinton said.

One of those new initiatives, the Alliance for an Affordable Internet, barely got a mention in Clinton’s speech. But it merits attention. If successful, the project—a public-private partnership among the State Department, the World Wide Web Foundation, and tech companies such as Cisco Systems (CSCO), Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO) and Intel (INTC)—could end up helping many people in poor countries get onto the Web. It could also cement long-term ties between the State Department and the companies—while opening new markets and reaching new customers for Silicon Valley. “We’re going to help the next billion people come online,” said Clinton, quickly announcing the project before going on to talk about clean cook stoves for women in the developing world.

Read rest of article.

Continue reading “Yoda: US Diplomatic-Commercial Internet Initiative — Affordable Good, Proprietary Bad”

2013/02/042013/02/04

Patrick Meier: Does Big Data Lead to a Knowledge Society? No.

IO Impotency

Big Data for Development: From Information to Knowledge Societies?

Unlike analog information, “digital information inherently leaves a trace that can be analyzed (in real-time or later on).” But the “crux of the ‘Big Data’ paradigm is actually not the increasingly large amount of data itself, but its analysis for intelligent decision-making (in this sense, the term ‘Big Data Analysis’ would actually be more fitting than the term ‘Big Data’ by itself).” Martin Hilbert describes this as the “natural next step in the evolution from the ‘Information Age’ & ‘Information Societies’ to ‘Knowledge Societies’ […].”

Hilbert has just published this study on the prospects of Big Data for inter-national development. “From a macro-perspective, it is expected that Big Data informed decision-making will have a similar positive effect on efficiency and productivity as ICT have had during the recent decade.” Hilbert references a 2011 study that concluded the following: “firms that adopted Big Data Analysis have output and productivity that is 5–6 % higher than what would be expected given their other investments and information technology usage.” Can these efficiency gains be brought to the unruly world of international development?

To answer this question, Hilbert introduces the above conceptual framework to “systematically review literature and empirical evidence related to the pre-requisites, opportunities and threats of Big Data Analysis for international development.” Words, Locations, Nature and Behavior are types of data that are becoming increasingly available in large volumes.

Continue reading “Patrick Meier: Does Big Data Lead to a Knowledge Society? No.”

2013/02/02

Patrick Meier: Social Media as Pulse of the Planet?

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, IO Impotency

Social Media: Pulse of the Planet?

In 2010, Hillary Clinton described social media as a new nervous system for our planet (1). So can the pulse of the planet be captured with social media? There are many who are skeptical not least because of the digital divide. “You mean the pulse of the Data Have’s? The pulse of the affluent?” These rhetorical questions are perfectly justified, which is why social media alone should not be the sole source of information that feeds into decision-making for policy purposes. But millions are joining the social media ecosystem everyday. So the selection bias is not increasing but decreasing. We may not be able to capture the pulse of the planet comprehensively and at a very high resolution yet, but the pulse of the majority world is certainly growing louder by the day.

Read full article with seven graphics.

Phi Beta Iota: As Dr. Meier's notes, right now only the “haves” can be thinking about this. However, we remain certain that a project such as The Virgin Truth, or a concerted effort by the Secretary General of the United Nations to inspire a global United Nations Open-Source Decision-Support Information Network (UNODIN), or an initiative by Secretary of State John Kerry to create the Open Source Agency (OSA), can change the information dynamics and information ethics of the Earth virtually overnight.

2013/02/022013/02/02

Worth a Look: Google Glasses Concept Video

Advanced Cyber/IO, IO Impotency, Worth A Look

Continue reading “Worth a Look: Google Glasses Concept Video”

2013/02/012013/02/01

Secrecy News: Army Manual on Inform & Influence — Still Retarded, But Small Signs of Progress

IO Impotency

ARMY MANUAL HIGHLIGHTS ROLE OF “INFORM AND INFLUENCE ACTIVITIES”

The use of information-related tools to support military operations and to help shape their outcome is discussed in a newly updated Army manual on what are now called “Inform and Influence Activities.”

Inform and influence activities (or IIA) refers to “the integration of designated information-related capabilities in order to synchronize themes, messages, and actions with operations to inform United States and global audiences, influence foreign audiences, and affect adversary and enemy decisionmaking.”

In some circumstances, the manual says, information operations can play a decisive role.

“Activities occurring in, through, or by means of the information environment have a consequential effect on an operational environment and can impact military operations and outcomes. Therefore, commanders and their staffs must understand their operational environments completely. This understanding includes the information environment and the potential impacts it can have on current and planned military operations.”

But the effectiveness of such activities is naturally limited by the realities of the military engagement.

Continue reading “Secrecy News: Army Manual on Inform & Influence — Still Retarded, But Small Signs of Progress”

2013/01/272013/01/27

DefDog: CyberCom is a Joke. Does Boosting Its Numbers Fivefold Make it a Travesty? Memo to Hagel: Start Here.

Corruption, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Impotency, Military

Cybercom is a joke. This is insane.

Pentagon to boost cybersecurity force

By Ellen Nakashima, Sunday, January 27, 5:42 PM

The Pentagon has approved a major expansion of its cybersecurity force over the next several years, increasing its size more than fivefold to bolster the nation’s ability to defend critical computer systems and conduct offensive computer operations against foreign adversaries, according to U.S. officials.

The move, requested by the head of the Defense Department’s Cyber Command, is part of an effort to build an organization that until now has focused largely on defensive measures into the equivalent of an Internet-era fighting force. The command, made up of about 900 personnel, will expand to include 4,900 troops and civilians.

Details of the plan have not been finalized, but the decision to expand the Cyber Command was made by senior Pentagon officials late last year in recognition of a growing threat in cyberspace, said officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the expansion has not been formally announced. The gravity of that threat, they said, has been highlighted by a string of sabotage attacks, including one in which a virus was used to wipe data from more than 30,000 computers at a Saudi Arabian state oil company last summer.

Read full article.

Continue reading “DefDog: CyberCom is a Joke. Does Boosting Its Numbers Fivefold Make it a Travesty? Memo to Hagel: Start Here.”

2013/01/232013/02/13

Stuart Umpleby: Deliberate Mis-Information is Anti-Cybernetic

Communities of Practice, Corruption, IO Impotency

Of possible interest consistent with the information pathologies threat, not my views but worthy of reflection.

Misinformation and Its Correction: Continued Influence and Successful Debiasing

A successful democracy requires well-informed citizens, but what if the information at their disposal is not accurate? Examples of misinformation are widespread and range from inflated advertising claims and political accusations to flawed scientific findings and assertions over health and medical issues. The scholar Cass Sunstein has written of the effects of “biased assimilation,” and how the echo-chamber of polarized groups is more susceptible to rumor- or conspiracy-based “information cascades.”

So how does misinformation start, how does it spread, and what can be done to counteract its effects? A 2012 metastudy from the University of Western Australia, University of Michigan, and University of Queensland published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, “Misinformation and Its Correction: Continued Influence and Successful Debiasing,” focuses on how misinformation originates and spreads, why it is difficult to correct, and how best to counteract it.

Key study findings include:

Read seven findings and see other links.

Continue reading “Stuart Umpleby: Deliberate Mis-Information is Anti-Cybernetic”