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ExecutiveBiz: Tell us your role and responsibilities at the Agency?
Sean Dennehy:
Since late 2005, I’ve been the lead “evangelist” within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for the deployment and adoption of web 2.0 tools. The Agency has four Directorates. I work in the Directorate of Intelligence, where the majority of the CIA’s analysts reside. I‘ve teamed up with another colleague, Don Burke who works in the Directorate of Science and Technology, this is where the majority of the CIA’s scientists reside. Don and I have forged an effective partnership across the two directorates and setup a new program--the CIA Intellipedia Sabbatical. This program introduces our officers to all the new Intelligence Community (IC) web 2.0 tools provided by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
ExecutiveBiz: Web 2.0 means different things to different people, how would you define the web 2.0 tools as it relates to the intelligence community?
Sean Dennehy:
Tim O’Reilly coined the term, web 2.0--it’s basically using the internet or web as a platform in which applications improve the more people use them due to network effects. I often relate to our students a story about when I first joined Facebook (Facebook is a good example because it’s an obvious web 2.0 application). When I first started using Facebook it had very little value to me until other colleagues and friends started using it, then it became a much richer source of information for me. So how does this relate to the IC? Well it’s about user participation. The more people that start participating and using the tools, the more we can work collaboratively to build knowledge across the IC.
Prior to Intellipedia, blogs and TagConnect (the social bookmarking software in the IC), you had to go through a webmaster to get anything posted to the web. I remember sending out “blast” emails to everyone in the IC that you knew worked an issue, but emails fall into what we call a channel and can only be seen by those people on the distribution list, when there might be others outside that list that might have something to contribute. By using blogs, Intellipedia, and TagConnect, you can move the analytic “conversation” previously trapped in a channel out onto a platform where more people can see it and participate. That’s actually one of the recommendations from the Iraq WMD Commission—to make the IC’s analysis more transparent. I believe that these tools can help us become more transparent.
ExecutiveBiz: Are the blogs that you might use right now in the intelligence community, internal or external?
Sean Dennehy:
The blogs are available to the entire IC on our internal networks.
ExecutiveBiz: And how does Intellipedia work?
Sean Dennehy:
Intellipedia uses the same software as Wikipedia, but there are some key differences between the two. First, in Intellipedia all edits are attributable—every user must have an account which is forever tied to your name—this encourages professionalism and prevents anonymous edits that are common in Wikipedia.
The second difference is Intellipedia is not an encyclopedia. I think the IC should look forward toward issues on the horizon, whereas, Wikepedia focuses on past events. By focusing on potential future terrorist attacks or events we can start articles to capture data now and work collaboratively on potential future issues. Also we do use it to capture information from conference and lectures so others can benefit from that knowledge.
The third difference is that Wikipedia uses what’s called neutral point of view or NPOV. This means you can’t inject your personal political view point, you have to use language that all users can agree on for a particular topic. This approach does not work for the IC. We don’t want to boil everything down so we are all in agreement; we want to clearly see where the disagreements are and capture those discussions in a collaborative platform.
ExecutiveBiz: Are there any cultural challenges as an agency using Intellipedia or other social networking tools?
Sean Dennehy:
It is often said that using new tools is ten percent about technology and 90 percent about the culture within any large organization. One challenge for us is most IC professionals were never web 1.0—and now we are making the leap to web 2.0. Also some within the workforce are unfamiliar with these new web based tools (wikis, blogs, social bookmarkings) and will need to learn how best to apply them their work. We tackle these issues in our sabbatical and training programs.
Another issue is the IC culture of “need to know”---many people feel uncomfortable putting their information out on such a broad platform. However, in the wake of 9-11 and the Intelligence Reform and Terrorist Prevention Act (IRPTA), the IC now has a “need to share” ethos that co-exists with the “need to know” philosophy. Our challenge is to find a balance between what we can share and what we need to hold more closely.
Finally, I believe there is no “one stop shop” when it comes to the IC and these web 2.0 tools, because there’s always going to be pertinent information that might not directly be available to you, your particular issue, or organization. However, others in the IC may have data so the key is to find and make these connections. This reminds me of David Weinberger’s most recent book, titled “Everything is Miscellaneous”. To me, this means there’s no “one place” to go get information, it’s going to be scattered. I think the IC can’t put all of our information in one bucket. During our training programs we encourage IC officers to capture what they can at the basic level, where most people can benefit, and use links—“bread crumbs”—if you will, that leads to the more sensitive data that not everyone has access to.
ExecutiveBiz: The DNI recently announced the planned launch of A-Space in December, how’s that coming along?
Sean Dennehy:
The A-Space initiative hasn’t been rolled out yet so it’s difficult to comment. I defer to the DNI’s Office of Public Affairs for the specifics of this program.
ExecutiveBiz: Are there any projects or current projects in Second Life?
Sean Dennehy:
I’m not personally involved in any projects.
ExecutiveBiz: I understand that the Agency is also doing some training programs with National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), a collaborative environment. What are some training programs and how’s that coming along?
Sean Dennehy:
Chris Rasmussen runs a course that’s similar to our sabbatical that’s called NGA Social Software 101. He makes it a point that all web 2.0 training be collaborative and IC wide. In fact many CIA folks, including myself, go to NGA to help with their training program.
ExecutiveBiz: What would the average citizen be surprised to learn about the intelligence community’s view of web 2.0 now or collaborative information?
Sean Dennehy:
There are still challenges to implementing web 2.0, but we’ve actually been pleasantly surprised at the number of people who have started working topical issues in these environments. In some cases the IC is ahead of other organizations, which is a success story for the Federal Government.
ExecutiveBiz: What does the future looks like in terms of web 2.0 and you’ve seen a couple of years now?
Sean Dennehy:
I’ve often said in our training programs that this is a journey and it’s not going to happen overnight. I’m a believer in these tools and yet it’s taken me quite awhile to make the transition from doing most of my business in channels (email, word documents) to platforms. But now that I have, I spend less time in my email, which frees up my time to focus on the mission, protecting the American people. I hope in the future we focus on acting as a community, to work collaboratively on topical issues.
ExecutiveBiz: Is there any other information you would like to add that we didn’t talk about that you think our readers would find of interest?
Sean Dennehy:
These web 2.0 tools allow professionals working in multiple organizations to work laterally across agency lines, more effectively and efficiently. During a recent speech, Director of the CIA, General Hayden, said he hopes future intelligence officers look more left and right and less up and down---these tools allow us to do just that.
For more information about
Central Intelligence Agency, visit
www.cia.gov.
Interview with Sean Dennehy conducted by JD Kathuria.
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