Secret service goes online

A number of people have been asking me about the business value of blogging, social networking sites and other online tools. Last week The Financial Times ran a front-page story which shows that not only businesses but also the public sector understand the benefits of digital communications: US intelligence agencies will launch a portal modelled on social networking sites!

No, government secrets will not be available to the general public. The US intelligence units plan to have an internal communications tool similar in its architecture to Facebook and MySpace, the two most popular social networking websites. This is an obvious acknowledgement that social sites have business application even in such areas as secret service.

The Financial Times reports that the new tool, A-Space, (AgentSpace? AnalystSpace?) will help share information among all the 16 US intelligence agencies. It will be a kind of MySpace for secret service officers. No doubt, this move is not greeted by all spies and secret agents as it involves the risk of sensible information being taken over by counter-intelligence and disclosure of undercover agents. Well, these guys should know better in what kind of business they are and what risks that involves. :)

Interestingly, the chief executives of MySpace and Facebook have been invited to participate at a conference in September to discuss the new system to be launched by the American intelligence in December.

I'd like to participate at such a conference. At least to meet the two guys, not to mention the curiosity of seeing American 007's in flesh. :)

Scottish police info box, Edinburgh, April 2007. Photo by Giedrius CP