National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency    (36C7)

Interests: social software, geospatial semantic web, generational conflict in the work place, open source intelligence    (36CO)

This reply will be published in the Sept 2006 edition of Wired Magazine.    (36CF)

Responding article: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/varmus.html    (36CG)

I wrote:    (36CH)

Harold Varmus’ desire to shift away from expensive and exclusive subscription-based scientific journals to more on-line and egalitarian mediums is similar to the battle within the US Intelligence Community to produce intelligence using wiki pages and share info via social bookmarking services like del.icio.us, for example. I’m a member of a group called the “Intellipedians” (classified version of Wikipedia) that advocate the use of social software to produce and share intelligence. Mr. Varmus’ opposition from the scientific status quo pales in comparison to the opposition we Intellipedians face from middle-management and old school analysts (senior leaders seem to get it more often).    (36CJ)

Take the most obstinate opponent of Varmus’ PLoS, multiply that by a hundred, sprinkle with the aggregate bureaucratic inertia and disparate architecture of 16 intelligence agencies, then throw in a splash of justification for the old way of doing business and you have a brew that cripples most but good Intellipedians will wash it off and keep on trooping.    (36CK)

email:christian.k.rasmussen@nga.mil    (36CM)

email:nssckras@yahoo.com    (36CN)

my social bookmarks http://del.icio.us/ckras    (36D4)

phone: 202-284-5349    (36D5)