[Infowarrior] - CIA's Intellipedia Marks Second Anniversary

[Richard Forno]

Intellipedia Marks Second Anniversary


https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/intellipedia-mar
ks-second-anniversary.html

Many people in today¹s world are familiar with Wikipedia, the free online
collaborative encyclopedia. But, have you ever heard of Intellipedia?

Intellipedia is the Intelligence Community¹s version of the famous
encyclopedia. It is used by analysts, working groups, and engineers
throughout the IC. Since its unveiling in 2006, Intellipedia has grown
exponentially ­ with more than 1.5 million edits on the top secret network
alone.

 
How It All Began

The catalyst for applying this revolutionary approach to collaboration in
the Intelligence Community was a 2004 award-winning paper by CIA employee
Calvin Andrus entitled, ³The Wiki and the Blog: Toward a Complex Adaptive
Intelligence Community.² The paper detailed the need for the IC to adapt to
the increased pace of the world.

    Intellipedia has grown into a rich tapestry of knowledge, collaboration,
and cross-agency efforts.

In late 2005, the CIA¹s Sean Dennehy spearheaded the initial Intellipedia
effort, becoming the ³pilot customer² for a wiki capability within the IC.

Intellipedia was formally announced to the Intelligence Community in April
2006. And while the CIA has been a vocal advocate of these capabilities, the
CIA is only one of the many US intelligence, diplomatic, and military
organizations that use Intellipedia on top secret, secret, and unclassified
networks.

 
How Does It Work?

Intellipedia has grown into a valued repository of information that allows
employees in any position (from analysts and engineers to librarians and HR
specialists) to quickly learn about a wide variety of topics and issues
important to the Intelligence Community and US Government. It also offers a
powerful location for individuals from across the world to capture reporting
as a crisis unfolds.

As a wiki, Intellipedia allows all authenticated users to aggregate
information and knowledge by creating, editing, and discussing articles in
an agency-neutral and topically-focused space. Unlike the world¹s Wikipedia,
Intellipedia is not restricted to encyclopedic-only content. Intellipedians
are using the wiki, as well as other ³web 2.0² tools, to improve
communication and connect related data and efforts together.

Intellipedia provides a cost-effective platform to access expertise wherever
it resides across the IC. It allows anyone to connect the who with the what.

³If you have expertise on a subject, you can contribute to a topical page
with other experts working that issue in different organizations and
immediately you¹ve made a connection with others, who you may not have known
otherwise,² said Don Burke of the CIA¹s Directorate of Science and
Technology. ³Furthermore, more senior members of our Community can use
Intellipedia to capture decades of knowledge which, without Intellipedia,
would otherwise walk out the door when they retire.²

Intellipedia also helps address the problem of information discovery. Prior
to Intellipedia, a lot of information remained inaccessible in shared drives
and e-mail folders. But, information on Intellipedia is easily found by
search engines and readily available across the Community. Intellipedia also
is a bonus for new Intelligence Community members, who expect the IC to use
modern information tools.

³The seamless integration between the way we use Internet tools at home and
at work enable us to be a more effective organization,² said an another
Intellipedian.

 
Marking Its Second Anniversary

As Intellipedia nears its second anniversary, it continues to grow rapidly.
Since July 2007, Intellipedia has grown from 20,000 registered users to more
than 35,000. Intellipedia reached 1 million total edits in September 2007.
In March 2008, Intellipedia will pass 1.6 million edits. There are
approximately 48,000 article pages and more than 200,000 total pages that
help tie information together.

Intellipedia and other ³web 2.0² tools available to the Intelligence
Community are making individuals more productive and efficient.
Intellipedia¹s vibrant environment has played an important role in improving
morale, unleashing creativity, and helping officers across the world feel
more connected with their colleagues.

Every day, Intellipedia helps facilitate a hundred small wins as experts
across each network connect with one another, identify relationships in data
and topics, and capture historical knowledge that facilitates better
decision-making today. It has grown into a rich tapestry of knowledge,
collaboration, and cross-agency efforts.

 

 
Posted: 2008-03-20 14:31