Here are some explanatory excerpts from Wikipedia on Intellipedia:
Intellipedia is a project of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).Maybe, just maybe, we as a society will crawl out from under the jackboots one of these days.
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Intellipedia uses MediaWiki, the same software used by the Wikipedia free-content encyclopedia project.[1] ODNI officials say that the project will change the culture of the U.S. intelligence community, widely blamed for failing to "connect the dots" before the attacks of September 11, 2001.
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Intellipedia was at least partially inspired by an essay competition set up by the CIA - later taken over by the DNI - that encouraged any employee at any intelligence agency to submit new ideas to improve information sharing. The first essay selected was by Calvin Andrus
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Andrus' essay argued that the real power of the Internet had come from the boom in self-publishing, and noted how the open-door policy of Wikipedia allowed it to cover new subjects quickly.
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The project was greeted initially with "a lot of resistance," said Wertheimer, because it runs counter to past practice that sought to limit the pooling of information.[10] He said there are risks in everything that everyone does, "the key is risk management, not risk avoidance." Some encouragement has been necessary to spur contributions from the traditional intelligence community
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The wiki provides so much flexibility that several offices throughout the community are using it to maintain and transfer knowledge on daily operations and events. Anyone with access to read it has permission to create and edit articles after registering and acquiring an account with Intelink. Since Intellipedia is intended to be a platform for harmonizing the various points of view of the agencies and analysts of the Intelligence Community, Intellipedia does not enforce a neutral point of view policy.[16] Instead, viewpoints are attributed to the agencies, offices, and individuals participating, with the hope that a consensus view will emerge.
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Deputy DNI Thomas Fingar made a comparison to eBay, the auction Web site where the reliability of sellers is rated by buyers. He said he hoped Intellipedia would reward analysts whose judgments most often turned out to be correct. Or, he said, "if you are an idiot, we want that made known."
7 comments:
As power hungry and malevolent (or worse benevolent) as governments can be, I find it heartening to know that human knowledge and ability consistently stay one step ahead of the Leviathan.
This progression, in essence, defines anarchy in practice, and I believe that the ever-widening gulf between the individual and the state makes the latter more and more irrelevant.
Frankly, I think that we are watching the death throes of the nation-state model. Like any dying animal, it poses a great danger to those who venture too close but no longer constitutes a threat to those who can manage to avoid it.
While I applaud the lyricism and allegorical cleverness of your words, I remain unconvinced that Anarchy or the Disollution of the Nation-State Model are inevitable or near.
It's easy to claim the lack of governance-as-a-neccessity from our middle-class American view point, however much of the world still faces violence intertwined with its daily anarchy.
I am saddened that oppression and restriction so often visit with governance, but I'm not sure I'd want to live in the sort of chaotically brutal world that anarchy would result in. I'm not made of stern-enough stuff for that.
As depressing as the distant sound of jackboots are, they seem less dreadful than the impact of some random criminals work boots being applied (with only the repercussions I myself could muster to dissuade him) to my hide or property.
At it's root, I think anarchy is a harrowing step backwards unless you first address and alter the fundamental issues of greed, bigotry and unmitigated rage inherent to human nature. Anything else is but a pipe dream.
It's by the same token that I argue against the point-of-view that "the Time for Religion is past" - I think parenthood and education are so spotty that removing religion as a motivator towards decency would result in further bloodshed than we have now.
I remember growing up in a very narrow-minded town, full of rapists, wife beaters, and violent bigots. I remember the threats and attacks on myself and people I knew. I'm fearful of how much worse said town would be without a church or a sheriff's office to remind people "who's watching" as they prowled main-street at night-time.
I think the Hobbesian Jungle is a strawman, but my response requires a full posting.
POV, anarchism is inevitable. The violence intertwined with its daily anarchy that you speak of has little to do with anarchism. Much of that violence is the direct result of differing systems of control vying for power. Much like the first neighborhood I moved into in MSP. Two rival gangs would shoot at each other in front of our house several times a week putting us and our property in danger. Because the cops would never bother to show up until they were certain the stand off was over, some called it anarchy. It wasn't. You had three systems of control in play, each exhibiting to the neighborhood their intentions.
In the second neighborhood I moved into things were a little better. We only had to suffer the violence of systems of control for several months before the predominant system of control finally decided to intervene.
And everybody knows random criminals are more likely to wear sneakers than work boots. Which don't hurt all that much.
Why the fuck did I ever let so many years go by without constant contact with you guys? Your thoughts are so refreshing.
I am not sure I am smart enough to read this blog anymore. Can we all just do some finger painting and eat paste for a while?
I am not sure I am smart enough to read this blog anymore.
I don't know about that. There's naked breasts a couple posts above, and FLILF a couple posts below. You should be fine.
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