Category: Manifesto Extracts

Intelligence for the 99 Percent

David Isenberg

Huffington Post, 27 June 2012

As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about the three Ds (Death, Doom, and Destruction) of international geopolitics I often ponder the way policymakers get their information. Admittedly, there are all sorts of ways to get information but for people in government it means only one thing, the intelligence community..

And when you reflect on the IC all sorts of other questions comes to mind; are taxpayers getting good value for the money, is the IC working effectively, can it be improved, how can it, and, perhaps most important, is there a better way?

That last point brings to mind a new book, THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO – Transparency, Truth, & Trust” by Robert David Steele

He is a former CIA clandestine services case officer, as well as a Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer for twenty years. He has promoted the use of open source intelligence (OSINT) for decades. He also runs the most informative Public Intelligence blog.

He has long argued that U.S. intelligence reform is needed and that the private sector can fulfill U.S. OSINT needs more capably and less expensively than the government can.

In other words, if a formal intelligence system is for the one percent, OSINT is for the ninety nine percent.

Continue reading “David Isenberg: Intelligence for the 99%”

Random House Special Markets is welcoming inquiries about purchasing this book by the case.  They only handle books being purchased to be given away, they do not handle books intended to be resold.  44 books per case, 45% per case is the standard discount.

Director, Premium Sales: 1-212-572-2329

General Inquiry: 1-800-800-3246

Idea for Individuals:  Get together with a few friends and buy one case, throw an Open Source Everything party with prizes for those who identify “opens” that are not in the book.  Move the meme where it matters–in your own neighborhoods and workspaces.

Idea for Organizations (Stakeholder Outreach):  Buy several cases of the book, and distribute them up and down the supply chain, the sub-contractor chain, the union chain, the local government chain, across all forms of client and stakeholder, and then hold an Open Space Day to discuss how these ideas can be applied to enhance the over-all network and its agility, prosperity, resilience, etcetera.

Idea for Organizations (Employee Outreach):  Buy several cases of the book, insert corporate sticker highlighting appropriate focus, and hand out at Hackers on Planet Earth in New York, or any of the Cloud or IT conferences taking place over the summer.  There is no other book that captures the Open Source Everything meme across the board.  This is it.

Single Copies for Individuals [Amazon least expensive]:

Review of the Book by Ralph Peters   …   Manifesto Extracts at Phi Beta Iota   …   Book Page at Amazon   .   Book Page at Barnes & Noble   .   Book Page at McNallyRobinson   .  Book Page at North Atlantic Books (Publisher)   .   Book Page at Powell’s Books   .   Book Page at Random House   .   Book Page at Super Book Depot

All,

Robert Steele, a former spy and co-founder of the Marine Corps Intelligence Center, was brought into our fold by Tom Atlee and especially Tom's book, The Tao of Democracy: Using co-intelligence to create a world that works for all.  In  the past decade Robert has participated in open space events as well as transpartisan events, sponsored the publication of COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace, and led a team creating a strategic analytic model for enabling all stakeholder–not just governments-to share information.

Now, for the first time, he has created a book for the general public.  THE OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING MANIFESTO: Transparency, Truth & Trust, is being distributed by Random House to all bookstores, and is available at all the normal online outlets.  Click on the book title to read short extracts from each chapter, watch a video interview by Warren Pollack, a review by Ralph Peters, and/or to select from any of the many options for purchase.  At this time Amazon is the least expensive at $10 instead of full retail $15.

The book was inspired by Robert's presentation to Gnomedex in Seattle, “Open Everything: We Won, Now Let's Self-Govern.”  A link to the video is at the above consolidated post.

Robert tells me the book made Top 100 in Democracy at Amazon, and more recently Top 100 in Espionage–these are fleeting rankings, but I am buying a copy of the book today, and I believe there is a possibility that the book could become a cult classic–transparency, truth and trust versus tyranny, toxicity, and theft.  A quick search for “Open Source Everything” suggests that the book is making its mark, and I urge one and all to help it along however they think best.

Cheers,
John

The Open Source Everything Manifesto Chapter 6 Whole-Systems Thinking Extract III

Even before the digital information explosion, the rapid expansion of scientific, social scientific, and humanities knowledge led to the fragmentation of academic disciplines, and then increasing fragmentation as sub-disciplines developed.  Figure 14 depicts how little of the knowledge can be accessed via online search, the default option for all too many people.  Add 183 languages in which knowledge is created, and the Babel factor is a multiple order of magnitude worse than a quarter century ago.

. . . . . . . . .

There is one other fragmentation that must be addressed.  I call them “the eight communities of intelligence” that do not share information with one another in any coherent manner, illustrated in Figure 15.  I use a figure, having listed these communities briefly above, because I want to illuminate two points: that they all share a “green” information commons; and that there are outer rings of yellow, orange, and red “restricted information information that demand security and privacy.

Each of these communities have vital original data, information, and analytical insights on any given issue.  They are not trained, equipped, organized, nor culturally disposed to share information they have, not even within their own community.

. . . . . . . . .

The fragmentation of knowledge is much worse than this.  When you look at data in context–what we should be able to do with all information in all languages all the time–we immediately see many more divisions in terms of time, space, discipline, and domain.

Review of the Book by Ralph Peters   …   Manifesto Extracts at Phi Beta Iota   …   Book Page at Amazon   .   Book Page at Barnes & Noble   .   Book Page at McNallyRobinson   .  Book Page at North Atlantic Books (Publisher)   .   Book Page at Powell’s Books   .   Book Page at Random House   .   Book Page at Super Book Depot

The Open Source Everything Manifesto Chapter 6 Whole-Systems Thinking Extract I

In The Collapse of Complex Societies, Joseph Tainer concludes that if we are to achieve sustainability and resilience, we must nurture at all levels across all boundaries a culture that elevates “problem-solving” as well as the ability to think strategically–an understanding that everything is connected and that getting a grip on the facts of the matter across all boundaries is an essential first step toward conceptualizing workable solutions to complex challenges.

Truth–the combination of intelligence and integrity as well as transparency–is the foundation for both understanding and eradicating these threats, while moving as quickly as possible toward what should be the human mantra toward the Earth and all species, “First, Do No Harm.”

. . . . . . . . .

David Keys, author of Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of Modern Civilization, tells us that natural catatrophes are treated as remote and improbable until they actually occur.  Only those civilizations that plan ahead and are well-organized can respond to disasters as they happen, thus reducing the severity of draught, famile, or other challenges.

What he does not focus on, covered very ably by Ted Steinberg in Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disasters in America, is how systemic corruption among the elites increases the damage caused by natural disasters, as little flexibility or resilience is built into systems designed to reward the few.  People are persuaded or allowed to occupy floodplains and other areas prone to disaster; land speculation runs rampant with local government and insurance company complicity; intermediate measures suc has levees are built at public expense.  When it all comes crashing down, as with Katrina over New Orleans or the increasingly regular Mississippi River flooding, the rich walk away with their high risks having been amortized, which the poor and minority communities are ruined.

Review of the Book by Ralph Peters   …   Manifesto Extracts at Phi Beta Iota   …   Book Page at Amazon   .   Book Page at Barnes & Noble   .   Book Page at McNallyRobinson   .  Book Page at North Atlantic Books (Publisher)   .   Book Page at Powell’s Books   .   Book Page at Random House   .   Book Page at Super Book Depot

The evolution of evolution is a transition from unconscious to conscious choice.

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In order for us to live within this finely balanced constellation of complex systems, in order for the Earth to show resilience and last for centuries into the future as an environment for human life, we have to embody three things: a respect for Earth systems and their details in balance; a commitment to discovering and sharing the truth and only the truth at all times about all things; and a commitment to doing no harm.

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No amount of money is going to prvent catastrophe.  Absent a commitment in creating a culture of attention and interoperability and information-sharing, we will create our own catastrophes each time we are challenged by what could have been nothing more than a localized disaster.

Review of the Book by Ralph Peters   …   Manifesto Extracts at Phi Beta Iota   …   Book Page at Amazon   .   Book Page at Barnes & Noble   .   Book Page at McNallyRobinson   .  Book Page at North Atlantic Books (Publisher)   .   Book Page at Powell’s Books   .   Book Page at Random House   .   Book Page at Super Book Depot