Processing Make the Most of What You Know Robert David Steele Intelligence Coach bear@oss.net

Bangalore, India No computers, no bus passes If you think you have it bad, consider Bangalore, India. 99 people have to depend on one jeep, five motorcycles, and a scooter. No bus passes, no training, no computers.

National Drug Intelligence Center Processing Makes A Strategic Difference Telling a story: DEA 900 files, FBI 90 files Case file benefits: visualizing the data for deep understanding Inter-agency benefits: providing an incentive for sharing leads

Processing Objectives Pattern analysis & anomaly detection Automated processing is vital to making sense of vast quantities of information. Pattern analysis & anomaly detection are the primary objectives--the human mind will provide the understanding.

Collection Management Can’t do CM without processing If you don’t know what you already know, and if you don’t know what your critical information gaps are, you cannot do effective collection management or case development.

Analysis Can’t do analysis without processing Our first mistake is to treat people as “free” goods. Our second mistake is to assume that an analyst can make sense of information simply by reading and thinking. THE NAKED ANALYST

Processing Pre-Requisite #1 Data handling standards Digitization of data at the point of acquisition makes everything else easier. Agreeing on common data handling standards compatible with web-based information sharing is helpful.

Processing Pre-requisite #2 Geospatial attributes Adding geospatial attributes to your data will increase its processing value by 100X to 1000X! Geospatial and time attributes are what make automated fusion and pattern detection possible.

Processing Pre-requisite #3 Interoperability Interoperability of digital data is vital. Among the seven national tribes Among regional military commands Among military and non-governmental organizations including foreign businesses

The Big Picture Four processing quadrants TECHNICAL HUMAN III - External Information EXTERNAL INTERNAL Organizational Memory System Data Conversion Visualization Heterogeneous Search & Retrieval Trip Reports Churning (Rotationals) Local Knowledge Expert Hires “Just Enough, Just in Time” Internal Reporting Vendor Reporting Government Monitoring Customer Monitoring Environmental Monitoring Technology Monitoring CHUNKS (Intellectual Property) PERSONALITY (Insight/Intuition) Patents, Etc. Trade Secrets Meta-Data Knowledge Capital™ Rolodexes/E-Mail Personal Brand Out-Sourcing of Information Processing Project/Group Management Training Business Intelligence Institutionalized E-Commerce Automated Analysis Cell # IV - Organizational Intelligence I - Knowledge Management II - Collaborative Work I’m going to go slowly with this chart. I want to make four key points here. First, knowledge management is elementary. We need to make the most of what we already know, and that means that we need an architecture that can handle both secrets and non-secrets while permitting the sharing of information across organizational lines. We can’t do that today within DoD, much less the rest of USG. Second, collaborative work, the ability to find, work with, and co-produce knowledge with anyone, anywhere in the world, is the real challenge facing us today. We are spending too much money on proprietary high-end compartmented solutions. The Internet and nomadic wireless computing are well-established, let’s get on with it, starting with funding for direct analyst access to the open sources that can help them identify expert peers in the private sector. Third, and Peter Drucker emphasized this in August 1998, we have to stop obsessing on information technology and we have to get serious about accessing external information. We can apply the “T” here, but we need to put the “I” horse in front of the “T” cart. Drucker says the third quadrant, External Information, is where the next revolution in IT must happen I have been saying this since 1988. Lastly, our architecture must provide for how we turn these first three quadrants into Organizational Intelligence, that is, knowledge that remains available to future generations in the face of rotations, retirements, deaths, and other human passages.

Processing Quadrant #1 Knowledge Management Know what you know Do not lose data, insights, links Integrate people, projects, vendors, times, places, objects Optimize application of technology to internal information INTERNAL Internal Reporting Vendor Reporting Project Management Data Conversion Automated Analysis

Processing Quadrant #2 Collaborative Work Human Capital Inherent in People Who They Know How They Know When They Know What They Do Who They Tell How They Feel INSIGHT Employee BrandNames Rolodexes E-Mail Directories Cell Telephone Networks Trip Reports Rotationals Training

Processing Quadrant #3 External Information Acquisition Peter Drucker says this is the next 50 years of innovation OLD: spend on technology NEW: spend on external information in all languages, from all sources, all the time EXTERNAL Local knowledge Expert hires “just enough, just in time” Customer monitoring Government monitoring Technology monitoring Environment monitoring

Processing Quadrant #4 Organizational Intelligence Data standards Data entry mandated Storage & retrieval Historical access without legacy system training Employee shoeboxes integrated/not lost MEMORY Intellectual Property Organizational Memory Meta-Data History of Information Electronic/Human Links Survive Human Turnover

Processing Desktop: Generic Analytic Functionalities Conversion of Paper Documents to Digital Form Automated Extraction of Data Elements From Text and Images Standardizing and Converting Data Formats Processing Images, Video, Audio, Signal Data Automated Foreign Language Translation Open Literature Non-Text Data Restricted Information Detection of Alert Situations Clustering and Linking of Related Data Statistical Analysis to Reveal Anomalies Detection of Changing Trends Interactive Search and Retrieval of Data Graphic and Map-Based Visualization of Data Modeling and Simulations Collaborative Work Notetaking and Organizing Ideas Structured Argument Analysis Desktop Publishing and Word Processing Production of Graphics, Videos and Online Briefings Revision Tracking and Realtime Group Review Finished Intelligence and Reporting A B C Here is another way of looking at where we need to focus intelligence technology--on desktop processing, rather than on satellite collection! CIA--Diane Webb in particular--defined these functionalities in 1986 and they still are not available to any intelligence analyst today for two reasons: First, because we spend all our money in highly compartmented programs where cooperation is viewed as one step short of treason; and Second, and I don’t have an answer, we have failed to focus on the importance of establishing Application Program Interface (API) standards that permit plug and play among third party softwares, and are stable or at least easily updatable. We desperately need analytic tools, and I would very much like to see General Kernan at JFCOM take on these 18 functionalities as part of the Future Intelligence Collaborative Environment (FICE), and in the process, working with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, devise an approach to the API issue. We need to establish a cross-government council on analytic tools, with JFCOM and NSA as the heavy-duty performers, and CIA as the top client. If we establish XML data standards, open encryption, and stable API’s, we can have all of this on every analyst’s desktop within five years, at a reasonable cost.

Processing Desktop No Easy Solutions Plan Extend Report Share OSALAT Copernic Collect Excaliber Topic Analyst Workbench Identifier, SIFT, OnTopic, Labrador GMS, Athens Aerotext Intelligent Miner For Text Analyze Content Extractor Information Portal, Comprendium ClearForest Suite CrimeLink Analyst Notebook **C-4-U Scout **CI Spider **Knowledge.Works **Market Signal Analyzer **E-Sense **Corporate Intelligence Service **TextAnalyst **Plumtree Corporate Portal **Powerize **Strategy! **Wincite **WisdomBuilder ** Previously reviewed in the Fuld & Co. Software Report Groove? EDGE? MindMap? SYSTRAN+? Other CATALYST Elements? This slide was created by Claudia Porter, a senior manager at Austin Info Systems in Texas, for her presentation to my conference last May. I asked her to start with the existing survey of business intelligence software by Leonard Fuld, a very competent practitioner. The four items in red are my addition after the fact. This is a mish-mash and most of the products do not meet customer expectations. None of them work well with one another, and all of them assume that the data will already be digital and in some structured form. The “T” must provide for stable and robust unstructured data entry and data conversion portals, for plug and play handshakes, and for idiot-proof online training embedded within each program…and good documentation of code.

Emerging Technologies #1 Digitization of documents Battlefield digitization is no longer an issue Battlefield translation is no longer an issue What is missing is the leadership willingness to link troops to both processing and expert translators.

Emerging Technologies #2 Visualization of links in text Visualization of links among people, vehicles, weapons, and bank accounts is no longer an issue. What is missing is the leadership commitment to arming troops with intelligence

Emerging Technologies #3 Peer-to-peer computing & communications Networked “side to side” intelligence is vastly more effective than up and down chain of command intelligence. What is lacking is a leadership commitment to training and then trusting the troops.

Processing Solution #1 Internet as common operating environment War and operations other than war are now a “come as you are” situation, with ad hoc allies that cannot be anticipated. Only the Internet offers a global C4I solution for mix and match people, equipment, and data.

Processing Solution #2 Open source software & security European Community has the right idea--open source software is the wave of the future Security must be in the software, not the hardware or the physical controls

Processing Solution #3 24/7 “Plots” at every level Need “plots” at the township, city, province, and national levels, as well as special regional intelligence centers Sources, geospatial processing, and analysts must merge

Recommendation #1 National “skunkworks” for seven tribes Neither the government nor the business world will solve the processing problem alone. Need a national “skunkworks” where open sources and open software can be safely integrated

Recommendation #2 Push NATO and USA for web-based sharing Help the European Community focus on the urgency of insisting that NATO and the USA migrate to a web-based approach to sharing all information, at every classification level. This is a Native American ethic.

Recommendation #3 Internet, Wireless, Spectrum Extend the Internet to every street corner Go wireless, with encryption, quickly Free up as much spectrum as possible--South Korea is the leader, not the USA

Creating a Smart Nation Connect Content Coordinate C-ecurity Connectivity everywhere Content is digitized Coordination of standards and investments C4 Security across all seven tribes--public safety at same level as safety of secrets