Published in The Atlantic, July/August 2001

"A former CIA operative explains why the terrorist Usama bin Ladin has little to fear from American intelligence"

The Counterterrorist Myth, by Reuel Marc Gerecht

A 1993 article on the then-emerging field of memetic engineering.

From the outline: Mind as Ecology, Mind as Ecosystem; Language, the Building Blocks of the Mind; An Expanded Model of Communication; Diseases and other Automata; Memetics as an Applied Science; Operational Uses of Memetic Engineering; Spread and Control of Memes; Protecting Yourself.

"The best way to protect oneself [is to] to 'know thyself.' [...] This document is an attempt at memetic manipulation as well."

Memetic Engineering: PsyOps and Viruses for the Wetware

(Editorial review from Amazon.com):
"A refreshingly unconventional look at architecture and the World Wide Web. Using Vitruvius' classical text De Arquitectura as a starting point, De Kerckhove begins a journey into the exciting world of the Internet. On the one hand he explores the architecture of this revolutionary mediums, on the other, he considers the wide-ranging opportunities which the IT world offers for architectonic design, revealing how this new medium for communication is as much based on tradition as on innovation.

Derrick de Kerckhove is the Director of the McLuhan Institute and Professor at the University of Toronto. His research into the effects of innovative technology on human communication, of new media on traditional culture have gained worldwide recognition."

Architecture of Intelligence: by Derrick de Kerckhove

Robert Steele's critically acclaimed April 2000 book on open source intelligence.

Reviews:
Alvin & Heidi Toffler: "Few have thought as deeply or imaginatively about such questions as a super-smart, forty-one-year-old former Marine and intelligence officer named Robert D. Steele. Steele's vision will thrill many--and send a quiver down the spines of others."
The Honorable Richard Kerr, Former Deputy Director of Central Intelligence: "Robert Steele storms into the core of intelligence issues without fear. The scope of his work is impressive and whether you agree with him or not, you cannot ignore what he says. The book is an important addition to the literature on intelligence."

Read a chapter from the book (in Microsoft Word format):

http://www.oss.net/OSS01/prezintel.doc

On Intelligence : Spies and Secrecy in an Open World

This excellent New York Times special report was prepared in the wake of the August 7, 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Among other things, it details the (persistent but ineffectual) efforts of the US ambassador to Kenya to prepare for and prevent the attacks.

"The CIA and the FBI had been amassing increasingly ominous and detailed clues about potential threats in Kenya, officials said. But the State Department bureaucracy still dismissed [the ambassador]. She was even seen by some at the State Department as a nuisance who was overly obsessed with security, according to one official."

Before Bombings, Omens and Fears

WHAT NOW?"

Respondents include Kevin Kelly, Esther Dyson, Freeman Dyson, Richard Dawkins, David Farber, Jaron Lanier, Douglas Rushkoff, Bruce Sterling, and many others.

Edge 90: What Now?

"Law enforcement uses a system known as "social network analysis" to predict and track individuals operating in terrorist networks. They may expand to analyze marketing data. NPR’s Joe Palca reports for Morning Edition. Oct. 12, 2001. Running time: 7 minutes, 11 seconds."

NPR: 'Social Network Analysis' Tracks Terrorists [RealAudio]

(From a review: 'Why Johnny Can't Catalog' might be a more appropriate title for this strongly argued yet brief piece. Author Cory Doctorow casts doubt on the ability (or even willingness) of Joe Six-Pack content-creator to properly and honestly identify his online material. Librarians will be familiar with many of the author's complaints.)

"A world of exhaustive, reliable metadata would be a utopia. It's also a pipe-dream, founded on self-delusion, nerd hubris and hysterically inflated market opportunities."

Metacrap: Putting the torch to seven straw-men of the meta-utopia

Needs: information transparency and longevity; active management of many schemas, over a period of time; accept information and begin creating instance metadata before schemas are fully understood. That is, need to enable and be resilient to evolving schemas; external and ad-hoc assertion capabilities; periodically re-factor schemas."

DSpace and Resource Description Framework (RDF)

As a joint project of MIT Libraries and the Hewlett-Packard Company, DSpace provides stable long-term storage needed to house the approximately 10,000 articles produced annually by MIT faculty, researchers, centers and labs."

DSpace: Durable Digital Documents