Posted 9:39 AM by Charles Cameron

Open Source Intelligence:

That tiny reference to a new Open Source Agency in a chart on page 413 of the 9/11 Commission report drew remarkably little press attention, but it wasn't a mistake, it was a marker for a significant idea. Chairman Thomas Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton recently confirmed their interest in such an agency in their Prepared Statement to the House Armed Services Committee of August 10, in which they propose:

A focus on open source information and the development of a new office or agency to collect and analyze solely open source information would also add to the competition of ideas on tough national security issues

It's my impression that we're still "chunking" here, thinking of creating a cluster rather than a distribution, building a central hub where a wide-flung network along the lines of GBN's "remarkable people" might be more to the point:

GBN's network of "remarkable people" is a diverse collection of original, systemic thinkers whose boundless curiosity, passion for ideas, and generosity of spirit leads them to explore a wide range of issues and contribute unique insights to the GBN community.

GBN Network News

And the thing is, the GBN network really is remarkable, featuring people like:

Douglas Engelbart, Lynn Margulis and William Calvin; Bill Joy, John Perry Barlow and Amory Lovins; William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and Vernor Vinge; Adam Kahane, Art Kleiner and Kees van der Heijden; Laurie Anderson, Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno; James Hillman, George Lakoff and Mary Catherine Bateson; Jaron Lanier, J.C. Herz and Gary Snyder; Freeman Dyson, John Brockman and Francis Fukuyama.

Now that's a truly impressive roll-call of intelligence in the original sense of the word. But okay, I know, this is a first step in a positive direction.