WTF??

Story: Draft legislation to create Open Source Agency postedTotal Replies: 9
Author Content
tuxchick

Nov 10, 2005
5:27 PM EDT
What is this article about? I read it several times and I still don't understand what Open Source has to do with spying.
richo123

Nov 10, 2005
5:37 PM EDT
Yeah very amusing website tuxchick. Had to laugh at this one:

"We are building the World Brain," Steele says "and it will be a major factor in deterring conflict and creating indigenous wealth that helps stabilize and reconstruct failed states. Information, not money, is what matters now.

Wow it looks like a bunch of ex-CIA types trying to go corporate! They have purloined the word Open Source. Hey Alvin & Heidi Toffler are attending so it must be good.
tuxchick

Nov 10, 2005
5:40 PM EDT
"Hey Alvin & Heidi Toffler are attending so it must be good."

Oh well, since you put it that way, it makes perfect sense!
tadelste

Nov 10, 2005
5:51 PM EDT
ROFL.......I read all these posts and occassionally, rarely, I get to laughing so hard I can't stop and then I can't breathe. So, it took a while and I'm still having laugh spasms. tuxxie you should also attend this event and report back.

I'm mostly interested if they plan to post the intelligence on sourceforge or collabnet.
jimf

Nov 10, 2005
6:17 PM EDT
Yeah, well guys like that would be hilarious if they weren't serious about it.
bstadil

Nov 10, 2005
6:28 PM EDT
This is actually a pretty good idea. Do you really think Chalabi would have been able to hoodwink the GroupThink prone guys in the Whitehouse into invading Iraq, if credible information about lack of WMD had been available.?

What about Iranians current effort to build a reactor. Don't you think that information gathered from multiple sources and vetted by the many eyeballs would be a good idea?

What about outsourced torture camps that the VP wants to keep secret? Wouldn't a collective gathering of info be a good idea?

The list goes on. Using opensource methodology to collect and vet intelligence is a brilliant idea.
tadelste

Nov 10, 2005
9:31 PM EDT
bstadil: You have very good observations about this. Not funny like tuxchick, but enlightened. I've always thought that the world would evolve this way and it would be the savior of man. If no one lied and we could transform the condition of the planet from disloyalty to trust then that would give us a whole new set of problems to solve.

Like Mr. Tim O'Reilly says, "the future is open."
jimf

Nov 10, 2005
10:29 PM EDT
tadelste,

You are correct. I believe that opensource methodology has possibilities both practically and politically way beyond open software. The problem is that, as always, the establishment will fight hard to maintain control. This could get nasty in ways we can only begin to imagine. Something that would make any conspiracy theory look unimaginative. History is all too full of violent responses to new ideas once the establishment realizes what the concept can do.
bdumm

Nov 11, 2005
1:49 AM EDT
ya'll need to go hang out with the woowoos over at godlike for a while....

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/bbs/default.php

seriously, what you are describing can be found at godlike. It is not "organized" like this fella in the article seems to want to do.

But you can find plenty of open source information. And you can find alot of disinformation, and outright crap. :)

One of the more interesting times to check godlike or glp is during any "real time" event. Scroll back in their archives to the Katrina timeperiod, both before, during and after. You can also search Katrina, hurricanes etc. You will find _alot_ of information about Katrina you probably didn't know, as well as plenty of conspiracy, woowoo etc

Many of those thread happen in real time. I got the impression the article was going to do the same just more organized, less noise, etc. Doubt it will be like glp and I know it won't be as fun.... ;)



tadelste

Nov 11, 2005
7:53 AM EDT
I agree with the assessment.

Part of the paradigm of a closed model creates woowoo disinformation and allows conspiracy theories to multiply. If I don't have the information, then anyone who acts as if he/she has "the inside scoop" will draw attention or attempt to get us.

I had the same experience on Wall Street. In certain areas, you will find efficient markets where everyone knows the same information about stocks and bonds. No one has an advantage supposedly. When you do a technical analysis of efficient stocks, they move with the S&P 500. You eliminate market risk.

When some large group of investment bankers decide to sell a stock for no apparent reason, the market will sometimes follow because people assume that they missed something. They didn't miss anything. It's a conspiracy.

Often, people will attempt to pull that off. The Street finds out that three banks known for selling off to lower the price only to re-enter later are selling. That beomes part of the efficient market and people won't respond to the selling at all. The stock stays at the same price.

godlike doesn't have an efficient information pipeline - no way, no how.

The concept of open source information is idealistic but it creates an overlay which allows you to play "what's wrong with this picture".

You know the game, you put a picture up and ask a bunch of kids to say what's wrong with this picture. One says, there's a little elephant standing on a mouse.

We used to do this in management. We'd draw an "as-is" scenario and then a "to-be". We'd say, what's wrong with this picture and then eliminate the "as-is" elements that didn't get us moving to the ideal scene.

So, I don't always discount idealism.

It's possibly a step in the right direction and it requires commitment and persistence.

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