Virtual intelligence

VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE:
Conflict Avoidance and Resolution Through Information Peacekeeping
by Robert David Steele
President, OPEN SOURCE SOLUTIONS, Inc.
In an age characterized by distributed information, where the majority of the expertise is in the private sector, the concept of "central intelligence" is an oxymoron, and its attendant concentration on secrets is an obstacle to both national defense, and global peace. The underlying threat to peace and prosperity-the cause of causes-is the ever-widening chasm between policymakers with power, and private sector experts and participants with knowledge. Neither classified information nor information technology alone can bridge this gap-but both can make a positive contribution if they are managed within a larger information strategy which focuses on content as well as connectivity, and enables policymakers to draw upon the expertise available in the private sector. We thus require a strategy to create a "virtual intelligence community" able to both inform governance, and also carry out a new kind of virtual diplomacy, "information peacekeeping". Information peacekeeping can help avoid and resolve conflict, and represents the conceptual, technical, and practical foundation for successful virtual diplomacy-virtual intelligence "is" virtual diplomacy.
This article presents the concepts of "virtual intelligence" and of "information peacekeeping". Part I discusses the nature of conflict as an analysis problem-what do we need to know, and how. Part II reviews a number of now publicly acknowledged deficiencies of the classified national intelligence community, and makes reference to some inherent related problems in government mis-management of unclassified information. Part III examines the perils as well as the promise of information technology as now developed and applied by governments and corporations-why are we substituting technology for thinking but also, how can technology help us think and also gain access to external expertise. Finally,
Part IV discusses the "information continuum" comprised largely of private sector centers of expertise; defines a theory of "information peacekeeping"; and outlines a specific strategy for creating a "virtual intelligence community" which can both inform governance, and conduct "information peacekeeping" operations-how do we harness distributed expertise from the private sector and use "tools for truth".
The article concludes that the "core competency" for diplomats, whether real or virtual, must be the management of information qua content-its discovery, discrimination, distillation, and dissemination as intelligence. It follows from this that diplomats must take the lead in developing a national information strategy as an element of national power, and also master the art of "information peacekeeping".