Information Operations (IO) – Page 330 – Public Intelligence Blog

Libraries Hurt If Net Neutrality Dies

The Washington Post blog The Switch interviewed the American Library Association’s Director of Government Relations Lynne Bradley in the article “Why The Death of Net Neutrality Would Be A Disaster For Libraries” about how libraries would be adversely affected without net neutrality. As public institutions with most of their resources online, libraries rely on free Web to serve their users and provide information. With budgets already stretched to their limits, libraries will not be able to afford to pay to ISPs. More people are going to the public libraries to have access to the Internet and other digital services. If that is taken away, not only will libraries suffer, but public education institutions will also suffer.

Continue reading “Stephen E. Arnold: Libraries Hurt If Net Neutrality Dies”

2014/06/112014/06/10

Owl: Micro Drones for Assassination – A New Equalizer Between 1% and 99%?

Drones & UAVs

The New Equalizer – A Genuine Game Changer: Kamikaze Assassination Micro Drones

The revolver was the great equalizer of the 19th and 20th centuries between individuals unequal in power or size, and perhaps, in the light of John Robb's writings, guns of various kinds have been a great equalizer between guerilla fighters and much larger state forces. But what will be the great equalizer between the pubic and increasingly tyrannical states inflicting their police and military forces on the much weaker public? I believe this new analysis gives the answer: Kamikaze assassination micro drones.

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2014/06/102014/06/08

John Maguire: German Villagers Build Own Broadband Network, Connect Directly to Dark Fiber

Advanced Cyber/IO, Crowd-Sourcing

German villagers build own broadband network

Hacked off with slow download speeds the locals of Löwenstedt clubbed together the cash to build their own super-fast internet service to the delight of the village's tiny population.

Too isolated and with few inhabitants, the tiny village of Löwenstedt in northern Germany is simply too small to show up on the radars of national Internet operators.

So the villagers took their digital fate into their own hands and built a broadband Internet network of their own.

Continue reading “John Maguire: German Villagers Build Own Broadband Network, Connect Directly to Dark Fiber”

2014/06/092014/06/08

Stephen E. Arnold: Elastisearch Open Source Rules Search — Bulldozing Content Processing

Advanced Cyber/IO, Software

Elasticsearch: Bulldozing Content Processing

When I left the intelligence conference in Prague, there were a number of companies in my graphic about open source search. When I got off the airplane, I edited my slide. Looks to me as if Elasticsearch has just bulldozed the search and content sector, commercialized open source group. I would not want to be the CEO of LucidWorks, Ikanow, or any other open sourcey search and content processing company this weekend.

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2014/06/092014/06/07

Steve Aftergood: CIA Gets Population of Syria Way Wrong

Government, Ineptitude, IO Impotency

CIA UNDERESTIMATES THE POPULATION OF SYRIA

The population of Syria is 17,951,639, according to the CIA World Factbook.

That figure (oddly identified as a “July 2014” estimate) is wrong, according to everyone else.

The discrepancy was noted yesterday in the intelligence newsletter Nightwatch.

“NightWatch consulted six separate sources for the total population of Syria. They agreed that it is between 22 and 23 million people, not 17.9 million as indicated in the CIA World Factbook. There are about 7 million Syrians under voting age of 18 and more than 15 million registered voters,” the newsletter said.

“NightWatch relies on the CIA World Factbook as a standard reference for unclassified factual, baseline information, as does the Intelligence Community. On three occasions since 2006, NightWatch has found errors in the Factbook,” the newsletter added. “This was the third occasion.”

A Congressional Research Service report last month also cites a total Syrian population of “more than 22 million.”

Errors, of course, are to be expected– even, and especially, in intelligence publications. One great virtue of the CIA World Factbook is that it is a public document. This makes it possible for readers to identify such errors, to draw attention to them, and to promote their correction.

2014/06/062014/06/05

Jean Lievens: Information Literacy = Wealth

Advanced Cyber/IO

The Information Age to the Networked Age: Are You Network Literate?

By Reid Hoffman

PandaWhale to LinkedIn, 4 June 2014

Apprentice: Using network technology
Journeyman: Establishing a network identity
Master: Utilizing network intelligence

EXTRACT

There is a whole “dark net” of critical-edge information that hasn’t made it into newspapers and blogs, information that exists only in people’s heads. In the past, such information was difficult to access for all but the best-connected and most persistent individuals. Now, it’s often just a few keystrokes away.

… the ability to extract the right information at the right time is more crucial than ever. Search literacy is an important starting point, but in today’s high-velocity world, network literacy is increasingly crucial too.

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2014/06/052014/06/04

Patrick Meier: Learning from Conservation UAV Campaigns — with Comment on 21st Century Neighborhood Watch, Alternative ISR, Citizen Intelligence

Advanced Cyber/IO, Drones & UAVs

What Humanitarians Can Learn from Conservation UAVs

I recently joined my fellow National Geographic Emergency Explorer colleague Shah Selbe on his first expedition of SoarOcean, which seeks to leverage low-cost UAVs for Ocean protection. Why did I participate in an expedition that seemingly had nothing to do with humanitarian response? Because the conservation space is well ahead of the humanitarian sector when it comes to using UAVs. To this end, we have a lot to learn from colleagues like Shah and others outside our field. The video below explains this further & provides a great overview of SoarOcean.

Video, post, other links.

Continue reading “Patrick Meier: Learning from Conservation UAV Campaigns — with Comment on 21st Century Neighborhood Watch, Alternative ISR, Citizen Intelligence”