Long: NGA is moving toward ‘immersive intelligence’ by Sean Lyngaas.
From the post:
Of the 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is best suited to turn big data into actionable intelligence, NGA Director Letitia Long said. She told FCW in an April 14 interview that mapping is what her 14,500-person agency does, and every iota of intelligence can be attributed to some physical point on Earth.
“We really are the driver for intelligence integration because everything is somewhere on the Earth at a point in time,” Long said. “So we give that ability for all of us who are describing objects to anchor it to the Map of the World.”
NGA’s Map of the World entails much more minute information than the simple cartography the phrase might suggest. It is a mix of information from top-secret, classified and unclassified networks made available to U.S. government agencies, some of their international partners, commercial users and academic experts. The Map of the World can tap into a vast trove of satellite and social media data, among other sources.
NGA has made steady progress in developing the map, Long said. Nine data layers are online and available now, including those for maritime and aeronautical data. A topography layer will be added in the next two weeks, and two more layers will round out the first operational version of the map in August.
Not surprisingly, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency sees geography as the organizing principal for intelligence integration. Or as as NGA Director Long says: “…everything is somewhere on the Earth at a point in time.” I can’t argue with the accuracy of that statement, save for extraterrestrial events, satellites, space-based weapons, etc.
On the other hand, you could gather intelligence by point of origin, places referenced, people mentioned (their usual locations), etc., in languages spoken by more than thirty (30) million people and you could have a sack with intelligence in forty (40) languages. List of languages by number of native speakers
When I say “topic map-like” application, I mean that the NGA has chosen geographic locations as the organizing principle for intelligence as opposed to using subjects as the organizing principle for intelligence, of which geographic location is only one type. Noting that with a broader organizing principle, it would be easier to integrate data from other agencies who have their own organizational principles for the intelligence they gather.
I like the idea of “layers” as described in the post. In part because a topic map can exist as an additional layer on top of the current NGA layers to integrate other intelligence data on a subject basis with the geographic location system of the NGA.
Think of topic maps as being “in addition to” and not “instead of” your current integration technology.
What’s your principle for organizing intelligence? Would it be useful to integrate data organized around other principles for organizing intelligence? And still find the way back to the original data?
PS: Do you remember the management book “Who Moved My Cheese?” Moving intelligence from one system to another can result in: “Who Moved My Intelligence?,” when it can no longer be discovered by its originator. Not to mention the intelligence will lack the context of its point of origin.