Case Summary

In response to intelligence missteps leading up to 9/11 and the Iraq War, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) sought to build a flatter US Intelligence community better equipped to coordinate and share classified surveillance information. The technology solution, "Intellipedia," is a peer-to-peer online collaboration network built on the same open-source software used by Wikipedia which allows intelligence analysts to share information through the federal government's classified Intelink intranet site. Intellipedia has already facilitated many small wins for the intelligence community, and the future seems bright for this collaborative tool.

Business Challenge

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks and the failure to find Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, the U.S. intelligence community was widely criticized for downplaying dissenting views among their own analysts¹. Consequently, ODNIdesired a more dynamic and open intelligence sharing environment that would significantly improve the quality of future intelligence estimates.

Approach Taken

In April 2006, ODNI under the leadership of John Negroponte launched "Intellipedia," an online peer-to-peer collaboration system built on open-source software from Wikipedia that allows analysts as well as other relevant personnel such as engineers, librarians and human capital specialists from all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies to establish a common operating picture through the federal government's classified Intelink Web.² Intellipedia, commonly referred to as the "spooks" wiki, is not available to the public and is presently divided into three classification categories, ranging from "sensitive but unclassified" to "top secret." This tool allows users to share information by creating, editing, and discussing articles in an online space that is both topically-focused and agency-neutral.³

Unlike the largely anonymous environment of Wikipedia, ODNI's collaborative tool requires all online participants to include their name and organization when they submit a contribution or an edit. This aspect of the approach is critical for providing accountability to the intelligence evaluation process in the event that assessments are proven to be faulty.

Results Achieved (Metrics Used)

When New York Yankees pitcher ,Cory Lidle crashed his plan into a New York apartment building on October 11, 2006, analysts from the Transportation Security Administration and other relevant agencies utilized Intellipedia to provide information updates on the accident 80 times during a two hour period. This proved to be an early success for the new collaboration tool, as it allowed intelligence officials to quickly determine that the crash was not a terrorist threat.

As of December 2008, Intellipedia has an estimated 90,000 users (some of which are registered multiple times, though) and 130,000 articles between its various networks. Quite surprisingly, the current community of active 'Intellipedians' includes both members of Generation X & Y as well more seasoned intelligence veterans.

In September 10, 2007 testimony before Congress, Michael McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, commended Intellipedia's capacity to aid analysts in making quick and accurate assessments by accelerating knowledge pooling and facilitating virtual team formation.⁵

Lessons Learned

While Wikipedia thrives on the anonymous nature of its online community, Intellipedia has so far drawn a surprisingly different lesson. According to avid participant Christian Rasmussen, attaching user identification to submissions has been critical to Intellipedia's early success, as it has provided ["ego gratification in providing great edits."⁶

Another important lesson learned so far is that there are many communication challenges that must be faced due to the classified nature of the intelligence information hosted on Intellipedia. Jessie Wilson, a Regional Issues Analyst for U.S. Central Command, importantly notes that while it is necessary to have different security level portals on the site, some users have unfortunately begun to store lower classified information on the higher level portals. This is problematic because when analysts search Intelink these hidden portals block the system's indexing ability, thus making appropriately classified knowledge undiscoverable.⁷ Hopefully these inevitable pitfalls will be addressed as Intellipedia becomes an increasingly indispensible communication resource.

Finally, Intelligence officials have noted that Intellipedia has yet to reach its full potential. Wiki collaborative technology allows for increased scrutiny of intelligence information, which should lead to more accurate reporting in the future. Additionally, wikis appear to be a natural compliment to National Intelligence Estimates and thus will further strengthen intelligence efforts when they are eventually implemented in this capacity.