Information Operations (IO) – Page 218 – Public Intelligence Blog

2016/07/262016/07/26

Stephen E. Arnold: Pirate Libraries Challenge Elsevier and Thomson Reuters to Liberate Knowledge for Destitute Scholars

Commerce, Corruption, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Impotency

They are called “pirate libraries,” but one would be better-served envisioning Robin Hood than Blackbeard. Atlas Obscura takes a look at these floaters of scientific-journal copyrights in, “The Rise of Pirate Libraries.” These are not physical libraries, but virtual ones, where researchers and other curious folks can study articles otherwise accessible only through expensive scientific journal paywalls. Reporter Sarah Laskow writes:

“The creators of these repositories are a small group who try to keep a low profile, since distributing copyrighted material in this way is illegal. Many of them are academics. The largest pirate libraries have come from Russia’s cultural orbit, but the documents they collect are used by people around the world, in countries both wealthy and poor. Pirate libraries have become so popular that in 2015, Elsevier, one of the largest academic publishers in America, went to court to try to shut down two of the most popular, Sci-Hub and Library Genesis.

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2016/07/262016/07/23

Stephen E. Arnold: Palantir Thiel & Trump – Displacing Old Tech & Old Complex?

IO Impotency

Palantir Thiel: An If Then Chess Move?

I read “The Peter Principle: Why Thiel’s GOP Convention Speech Will Be about Him and Not about Silicon Valley.” Interesting write up but I think the “about” part is possibly incorrect. I think the speech just might have been about Palantir, procurement, and displacing the traditional US government defense contractors. The stakes are not ego; the stakes are hundreds of millions in technology business. Silicon Valley and money. It is possible that some Palantir-think informs the political enthusiasms of Mr. Thiel.

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2016/07/252016/07/22

Berto Jongman: In-Ear Device Translates on the Fly…

IO Tools

Life Changing In-Ear Device Automatically Translates Foreign Languages So You Can Talk To Anyone

The tiny translator created by Waverly Labs, a US-based company, is called The Pilot System. Let's just say it has the potential to change the world in a really big way. Sorry professional translators, but it looks like technology is trying to snag your career. The simple earpiece does all of the translating for you. It even translates what you say into the other person's language.

2016/07/242016/07/23

Edward Schumacher-Matos – A New Vision for IR Schools in the Platformed World

04 Education, 11 Society, Analysis, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ineptitude, InfoOps (IO), IO Impotency, IO Sense-Making, IO Technologies, Media, Methods & Process, Misinformation & Propaganda, Open Government

A New Vision for IR Schools in the Platformed World

Key points:

Whole way in which information and society are organized has changed. From stovepipes to networks — growing power of audience and authentity. This is a threat to the whole Westphalian order of nations (i.e. top-down “because we say so” hierarchical authority). State-owned media now setting the new standard for message delivery while the Western media is collapsing for lack of viability of the advertising – print – broadcast models. Western media is spending too much time on minutia of single events and not enough time on framing, context, and meaning.

“It is time for schools to come down from the ivory tower…and start engaging with the public, doing news analysis, data dives, informing the public [in ways that] the media cannot. . . . This is an opportunity as well as a responsibility.”

YouTube (14:17) Below the Fold

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2016/07/222016/07/20

Stephen E. Arnold: Palantir Retards US Army — with a Dilbert Cartoon

IO Impotency

Palantir Causes Army to Slam on the DCGS Anti Skid Brakes

My hunch is that there are some unhappy campers in the US Army’s DCGS program. Hey, delays interrupt the billing cycles for affected vendors. Based on my experience with some of DC’s biggest defense contractors, billing is often Job One for some folks. It may also be Jobs Two and Three as well. The work does come along, however.

Why mash the brake peddle in the US Army’s One:1? Navigate to “Army Will Hold Off on DCGS-A Award as Palantir Lawsuit Plays Out.” The write up states:

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2016/07/212016/07/22

Owl: John Robb Says Trump Spouse Speech Hacked — A Willful Signed Act of Plagiarism & Symbolism

Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ineptitude, IO Impotency

The systems disruption prize for Monday goes to the operative who Rickrolled Melania Trump's speech. Wow. Amazing.

Melania Trump’s Speech was Intentionally Sabotaged

Adding the rickroll to a sabotaged speech is a calling card. A signature for a hack. It's very, very cool.

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2016/07/202016/07/18

Neal Rauhauser: DC Leaks a Republican Hit Job on Democrats?

IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency

There has been a lot of noise about the stolen Democratic National Committee documents appearing on Guccifer 2.0's WordPress.com blog, but there is another equally impressive document cache out there.

DC Leaks (dcleaks.com) are pitching themselves as hackers, but the presentation is more consistent with political opposition researchers. The registration of a domain, the bare web server, albeit offshore, instead of hiding behind Cloudflare, and a slick, responsive site that expects visitors to let it run JavaScript are all cringe-worthy missteps. An actual hacker would be more likely to have a Twitter account, be using pastebin or some other text hosting site, and releasing torrent downloads of large caches of documents.

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