Government | Shepherd's Pi

Cruise Missiles and Yemeni Neighborhoods

Posted on December 30, 2009 by lewisshepherd

“The US is planning retaliatory strikes in Yemen against al-Qaida over its attempt to blow up a transatlantic flight on Christmas Day. American officials […] warn that finding those responsible is unlikely to be swift and say that identifying other ‘high-value’ al-Qaida targets for retaliatory attack would also be a priority.” – The Guardian (U.K.), 12/30/2009

As U.S. officials are quoted mulling cruise-missile strikes on Yemen, it should be noted that the Yemeni government, such as it is, has already been fighting the hard slog – on the ground, rooting out Al Qaeda in Yemeni neighborhoods and villages.

Below is an interesting 7 minutes of film fresh from Yemen, just posted to youTube today: a moment-by-moment video documenting the Arhab raid by the Yemeni Counter-Terrorist Unit (CTU) on an Al-Qaeda-in-the-Arabian-Peninsula (AQAP) safe-house, on 17 December, the same day as a coordinated U.S. cruise missile attack on another site.

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Filed under: Government | Tagged: 9/11, Afghanistan, al Qaeda, AQ, AQAP, Barrack Obama, Bill Clinton, bombing, Bush Administration, Christmas, Clinton, Detroit, George W. Bush, iraq, Obama, Obama Administration, President Obama, Serbia, surge, terror, terrorism, The Guardian, Twitter, Waq al Waq, war, Yemen, Yugoslavia | 4 Comments »

Total Recall for Public Servants

Posted on December 21, 2009 by lewisshepherd

MyLifeBits is a Microsoft Research project led by the legendary Gordon Bell, designed to put “all of his atom- and electron-based bits in his local Cyberspace….MyLifeBits includes everything he has accumulated, written, photographed, presented, and owns (e.g. CDs).”

SenseCam - Click to enlarge

Among other technical means, Bell uses the SenseCam, a remarkable prototype from Microsoft Research. It’s a nifty little wearable device that combines high-capacity memory, a fisheye lens passively capturing 3,000 images a day, along with an infrared sensor, temperature sensor, light sensor, accelerometer, and USB interface. My group has played with SenseCam a bit, and shared it with quite a few interested government parties and partners. More info on SenseCam here, and more on its parent Sensors and Devices Group in MSR.

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Filed under: Government, innovation, Microsoft, R&D, Society, Technology | Tagged: Abraham Lincoln, Ben Nelson, CD, citizen-journalism, computer, computer science, computers, data, Data.gov, devices, Donna Rice, E.J. Dionne, GAAP, Gary Hart, Gawker, Gordon Bell, gov20, Government, government as a platform, HD, Huffington Post, HuffPo, internet, JFK, Jim Gemmell, John F Kennedy, journalism, lifecasting, Mark Drapeau, Memex, Michelle Obama, Microsoft Research, MSR, MyLifeBits, Nancy Pelosi, National Defense University, NDU, PBS, politician, politicians, politics, Posterous, Poynter, SenseCam, sensor, sensors, Socrates, Steve Outing, Total Recall, Twitter, University of Missouri, URL, Vannevar Bush, Washington Life, web, Wikipedia, www, youTube | 6 Comments »

Inside Cyber Warfare

Posted on December 18, 2009 by lewisshepherd

One year ago, the buzz across the government/technology nexus was focused on a pair of political guessing games. Neophytes mostly engaged in debating over whom the newly-elected President would name to be the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer. Grizzled Pentagon veterans and the more sober Silicon Valley types wondered instead who would get the nod as President Obama’s “Cyber Czar.”

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Filed under: Government, Technology | Tagged: Amazon, Barrack Obama, Bill Clinton, blog, book, CND, CNE, CNO, computer, CTO, cyber, Cyber Command, cyber czar, cyber defense, cyber offense, cyber warfare, CyberCom, cybersecurity, Gret Goose, GreyLogicv, IA, information assurance, Intelfusion, internet, internet security, Jeffrey Carr, netwar, network, O'Reilly Media, Obama, Pentagon, political, politics, Publius Flavius, security, Silicon Valley, Sun Tzu, www | Leave a comment »

Education for Information Security in a Connected World

Posted on December 17, 2009 by lewisshepherd

Much of what I work on involves technologies which address information security and cyber security. So I have to ask, Who is training our next generation of technologists? And are those educators doing enough to focus on the dynamically changing demands of Information Security?

Those fundamental questions took me to Chicago recently, to take part in a roundtable discussion sponsored by DeVry University, “The Demand for Information Security in a Connected World.”

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Filed under: Government, Society, Technology | Tagged: African-American, best practices, Bill Gates, campus, CBP, Centropy, college, colleges, data, DeVry, DeVry University, education, engineering, Gates Foundation, governor, grad, hacking, Hacking Exposed, Hispanic, information, information science, information security, John Giancola, Lumina Foundation, Michael Davis, Microsoft, National Governors Association, NGA, Peter Walts, research, Savid, Stanford, Stanford University, STEM, students, technical, Technology, Thomas Jefferson, undergrad, universities, university, University of Pheonix, University of Southern California, University of Virginia, USC, UVA, video, youTube | 5 Comments »

The Purple History of Intelink

Posted on December 13, 2009 by lewisshepherd

When I first began talking with DIA CIO Mike Pflueger and Deputy CIO Mark Greer in the fall of 2003 about the work I’d be doing with them inside government, most of the ideas were big ones: let’s re-architect the DoDIIS enterprise, let’s find and deploy revolutionary new analytical software. One of our thoughts was a little one, but for me personally it turned out to be a most valuable project. They let me pull together a panel for the upcoming 2004 DoDIIS Conference called “Geeks and Geezers,” featuring some of the grand old names of intelligence technology. The panel was a success, and in organizing it, I spent quite a bit of time talking to those giants, or should I say listening to them. I learned an enormous amount about “the early days.” This post describes the important work of one of those fellows.

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Filed under: Government, innovation, Intelligence, Technology | Tagged: 9/11, Air Force, Army, Chris Rasmussen, CIA, cio, Dawn Meyerriecks, DCI, Defense, Defense Department, Department of Defense, DIA, DISA, DNI, DoD, DoDIIS, Fred Harrison, GCN, gov20, Government, government 2.0, IC, Intelink, Intelligence, Intelligence Community, Intellipedia, Intellipublia, internet, ISS, James Peak, James Woolsey, John Deutsch, John Hale, joint, JWICS, Mark Greer, Mike Pflueger, military, Navy, NCES, network, O'Reilly, ODNI, Pentagon, purple, SecDef, Steve Schanzer, tech, Technology, wan, web, Web 2.0, web20 | 8 Comments »

Undercover Grrl Band Techno Rave

Posted on December 12, 2009 by lewisshepherd

Friday I had an interesting meeting with Dawn Meyerriecks, who has just begun her new role as the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Acquisition and Technology. (Read the DNI’s statement on her appointment here in pdf, her bio here, and some reaction – all positive – here and here.)

Never mind what we actually were talking about, she asked me in so it isn’t appropriate to write about that. But to be honest I spent my drive home thinking about the atmospherics and significance of her holding that post in any case. In a companion post later (“The Purple History of Intelink“) I’ll comment on the significance of her prior background in the Defense Department.

But more striking, right off the bat, is the fact that DNI Dennis Blair has an impressive number of women in high-ranking senior leadership positions. And it’s not just the number, but the particular positions they hold that I like: Dawn Meyerriecks is DDNI/A&T, Priscilla Guthrie is Assistant DNI and Chief Information Officer, Marilyn Vacca is Assistant DNI and Chief Financial Officer. Lisa Porter leads the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency IARPA (I’ve written about her before). Continue reading →

Filed under: Government, Intelligence, Society, Technology | Tagged: acquisition, Carol Bartz, ceo, CFO, cio, Clara Raubertasa, COBOL, computer, computers, Danah Boyd, Dawn Meyerriecks, Defense, Defense Department, Dennis Blair, Department of Defense, DNI, DoD, engineering, espionage, Esther Dyson, Fast Company, female, feminism, feminist, finance, financial, gender, Grace Hopper, grrlpower, IARPA, IC, Intelligence, Intelligence Community, Jennifer Chayes, Kim Polese, Lili Cheng, Lisa Porter, male, man, Marilyn Vacca, math, Maui, men, Microsoft, Microsoft Research, Natasa Milic-Frayling, newfeminism, newfeminist, ODNI, Palin, postfeminist, Priscilla Guthrie, Sarah Palin, SBTV, science, sciences, Silicon Valley, Society, spies, spy, spying, STEM, Stemming.org, tech, Technology, Telle Whitney, WITI, woman, women, zephoria | 6 Comments »

A-Space Past and Future

Posted on November 24, 2009 by lewisshepherd

This week marks the second anniversary of the first live internal demo of the intelligence community’s A-Space project, groundbreaking for the IC in its goal of collaborative use of social media across agency lines. Somewhere in Maryland, a remarkable government employee and friend named Mike Wertheimer should pause and quietly celebrate the fruition of his early evangelism for it.

I was still a government employee then, but wrote about the effort at the time here on Shepherd’s Pi (“A-Space: Top-secret social networking“). It makes me chuckle to remember back to those days when it was still mostly unheard-of for IC employees to blog openly on the public web about current technology projects. Now you can’t shut ’em up! 🙂

It made sense, I thought, to set down a few notes at the time for several reasons: Continue reading →

Filed under: Government, innovation, Intelligence, Technology | Tagged: A-Space, Ahmad Ishaq, analysis, ASpace, Chris Dorobek, Chris Rasmussen, CIA, collaboration, computer, computers, DHS, DIA, DNI, Econsultancy, enterprise, espionage, Facebook, FCW, Flickr, GCN, Gizmodo, Google, Google Wave, gov20, Government, government 2.0, Homeland Security, IC, Intelligence, Intelligence Community, Intellipedia, IT, Joab Jackson, Mark Drapeau, Microsoft, Mike Wertheimer, ODNI, Office 2010, semantic, semantic web, SMS, social media, social network, social networking, social networks, social software, software, spies, spy, tech, Technology, transparency, Twitter, Wall Street Journal, Web 2.0, web20, Wikipedia, WSJ | 14 Comments »

Data in the Cloud from Dallas to Mars

Posted on November 17, 2009 by lewisshepherd

There’s a lot going on at this week’s Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC 09); it’s a traditional launchpad for cool new stuff. I thought I’d point out several of the government-relevant announcements and technology roll-outs.

I specifically want to spotlight something called Codename Dallas, and how NASA and others have begun using it. In the keynote this morning Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie told PDC attendees (and his streaming-video audience) that a landslide of new sensors and observational systems are changing the world by recording “unimaginable volumes of data… But this data does no good unless we turn the potential into the kenetic, unless we unlock it and innovate in the realm of applications and solutions that’s wrapped around that data.”

Here’s how we’re addressing that, with a bit of step-by-step context on the overall cloud-computing platform enabling it. The steps are: 1. Azure, 2. Pinpoint, and 3. Dallas.

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Filed under: Government, innovation, Microsoft, R&D, Technology | Tagged: AP, Azure, browser, cio, Citysearch, cloud, cloud computing, cloud services, computing, Dallas, data, data as a service, data services, Data.gov, database, Eclipse, ESRI, Excel, financial, Google, GUI, infoUSA, internet, IT, java, Mars, Michelle Viotti, Microsoft, Microsoft Semantic Engine, NASA, National Geographic, Navteq, news, PDC09, Pinpoint, PowerPivot, Ray Ozzie, RiskMetrics, semantic, semantic computing, semantic web, semantics, SKD, SQL, tech, Technology, Tim O'Reilly, TOPO, UN, Vivek Kundra, WaveMarket, weather, web, Windows Azure, Windows Dallas | 4 Comments »

Cyber Deterrence Symposium webcast

Posted on November 2, 2009 by lewisshepherd

As I type this, I’m sitting in a seventh-floor conference area at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, listening to the keynote speaker for the second of five panels today in the “Cyber Deterrence Symposium,” a joint production of INSA (the Intelligence and National Security Alliance), and the Homeland Security Policy Institute.

If you’re reading this on the day of the symposium (Monday November 2, 2009), you can tune in to the live webcast of the speakers and panels. It is a stellar line-up, see the roster below.

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Filed under: Government, Intelligence, Technology | Tagged: cloud, cloud computing, computer, computers, cyber, cyber security, cybersecurity, Defense, DHS, gov20, Government, government 2.0, GWU, hack, hacker, hackers, hacking, Homeland Security, HSPI, IC, INSA, Intelligence, Intelligence Community, internet, IT, military, Pentagon, politics, R&D, research, social networks, tech, Technology, web, White House, www | 1 Comment »

Stop by Tuesday for dinner or a drink with a great guy (and me)

Posted on October 24, 2009 by lewisshepherd

I’m taking up my duties as a public-spirited citizen next week on Tuesday evening, by hosting a fun little fundraiser for my local Congressman – and if you’re going to be in Washington DC the evening of 10/27 I hope you’ll join me (click here for the invitation and details). It’ll be a fun evening; we’ll be at the ultra-cool Johnny’s Half-Shell on Capitol Hill after all.

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Filed under: Government, Society, Technology | Tagged: Armed Services, Armed Services Committee, California, Capitol Hill, Congress, congressional, Defense, democracy, Democrat, Democratic, Democratic Party, DoD, enviro, environment, environmental, environmentalist, Facebook, fun, fundraiser, George Washington, Goldwater, gov20, Government, green, Hampton Roads, history, HoR, Jamestown, Johnny's Half Shell, Maoist, Maoists, Navy, party, philosophy, political, politician, politics, Republican, Republican Party, Rob Wittman, San Francisco, TCOT, Twitter, Virginia, Washington, Washington DC | 2 Comments »

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Cruise Missiles and Yemeni Neighborhoods

Total Recall for Public Servants

Inside Cyber Warfare

Education for Information Security in a Connected World

The Purple History of Intelink

Undercover Grrl Band Techno Rave

Stop by Tuesday for dinner or a drink with a great guy (and me)

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