Trend: Open Source Intelligence (Conference)

Here is a fasinating companion to all the recent posts about CITIZEN JOURNALISM>MASS INTERACTION>HACTIVISM>USER CO-CREATION, COLLABORATIVE TECHNOLOGIES, etc.

INTERVIEWS from the Open Source Intelligence Conference. (who knew that Washington was awake on this?):
http://www.echochamberproject.com/osint

some excerpts about the conference:
There were over 300 people from within the intelligence community, retired analysts, other corporate contractors as well as other attendees who were interested in the concept of open source intelligence.

One of the common values that seemed to unite all of the attendees was the perspective that classified sources of information do not necessarily mean that the information is any more relevant or useful than information that can be collected from open sources (i.e. newspapers, Internet, academic literature, reports from non-governmental organizations, etc.)

Another common value seemed to be that open source intelligence provides a more collaborative and transparent environment for generating knowledge. There were many people who have been fighting the compartmentalization of intelligence for many years.


AKI COMMENT: Now I think the purpose of this conference was to discuss open source with regard to Washington and espionage-type perspectives. But these interviews are good for our repurposing, too (I think this idea is the conclusion they came to at the conference).


But also as interesting is this site that collected the interviews, www.echochamberproject.com, which classifies itself as "...an open source, investigative documentary about how the television news media became an uncritical echo chamber to the Executive Branch leading up to the war in Iraq." The director, Kent Bye, gives you accesses to help with (transcribing interview notes, for instance) and track the production of the movie!

Kent says, "The Echo Chamber is a documentary on the failures of the mainstream media, and how I produce this film will hopefully provide some solutions to this infotainment bottleneck. I'm trying to develop more sophisticated techniques for citizen journalism by open sourcing my interview material and collaboratively producing The Echo Chamber on a Drupal/CivicSpace platform."

Can Hollywood get fluid like that? How 'bout CNN? The movement just keeps grinding forward...