Today's guest post is from Lauren Pinson. Lauren is a policy analyst and deputy program manager for SAIC, leading a team of onsite analysts in organization and management activities for a client in the DoD.
Hart Rossman posted several items about the Gov 2.0 Summit held September 9-10, and the implications for cybersecurity. Building on Hart’s posts, I wanted to discuss how the Gov 2.0 Summit offered insights into how the security community can embrace Gov 2.0.
Many thought leaders in the field were at the Gov 2.0 Summit, including U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, , Army Generals Sorenson and Justice, DoD Public Affairs Principal Deputy Price Floyd, and representatives from the Sunlight Foundation, Government Services Administration (GSA), Department of Homeland Security, White House, Google, ESRI, Facebook, Twitter, Department of Energy, and many more. The variety of subject matter seemed aimed to please everyone—but conference organizers insist that was the point. In writing this post, the problem was focusing on what matters to the security professional. There were several overall themes which permeated the Summit, and which also apply to the security field trying to balance openness and transparency with operational security (OPSEC). These themes, which were repeated over and over at the conference, were transparency, participation, and collaboration.
“These are not your grandfather’s wars. We do not always know who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.” –Army CIO and Lieutenant General Sorenson
First, transparency is ensuring identity and data in the era of Government 2.0. How do we trust identity and data online? Ensuring trust in the network is exponentially more important for soldiers, who must have trust that the intelligence provided is credible. Soldiers must know that the data is verifiable, and be confident to make decisions on the ground and engage the enemy. Gen. Sorenson highlighted the ways DoD is using social networking services (SNS), including on the continent of Africa to provide communications for humanitarian operations. In the civilian world, Ms. Judy Spencer from the GSA spoke on how it is important for the government to have an identity assurance mechanism to interact with 300 million people. It was also announced at the conference that government websites would now be allowing you to sign in with a Yahoo, Google, or other ID. For users of government websites, and the security community, the push for an open trust framework and “authenticated anonymity” should provide a level of assurance.
“Use social media to engage—not just push out messages.” –Defense Secretary Gates to Principal Deputy for Public Affairs, Price Floyd
Second, participation is ensuring that you are building communities of interest. The DoD is currently conducting a review of the use of SNS, and determining how the department should balance risk. Price Floyd spoke about the morale boost for soldiers to be connected with family and friends. Other uses include the real time updates to counter-insurgency manuals, lessons learned, and After Action Reports. (Although if it’s real time, is it just an action report?) The department is responding to Secretary Gates’ missive to engage by hosting town halls like this one, relaunching the DoD web site with ways to engage DoD, and encouraging the use of social media for recruiting and interacting with the public. Floyd is confident that the Web 2.0 policy will result in a well-balanced policy for both sides of OPSEC. A recurring theme of the summit was the people aspect —that SNS does not hinge on the technology,it is building a community of people.
“The power of collaboration is the power to get something done.” –General Justice
The third theme for the security community is collaboration. According to Gen. Justice, collaboration is one of the most important activities on the battlefield. The military has always used a rigid infrastructure and hierarchy, and now in the era of Web 2.0, needs to relearn how to be flexible. Studies have shown that 150 people is the optimal number for collaboration and working together to solve specific, well-defined problems. This is also, not coincidentally, the size of a company command in the Army. While DoD is at the leading edge of government in technology and Gov 2.0 principles, Floyd quipped that it would take 25 years for the government to develop Twitter, including several years just for a request for proposal (RFP). This is why government, and the DoD, need to incorporate open source and private applications to the security environment. At the Summit, Gen. Sorenson announced that the Army will soon launch a competition called Apps for the Army for those on the .mil domain to build new software that will help carry out the Army's mission. Gen. Sorenson also insists we need to teach soldiers to improvise with software like they do with hardware in the field.
The Gov 2.0 Summit provided a forum for discussion on the role of security in a digital government age. Indeed, the Office of Management and Budget will soon publish an Open Government Directive, promising the debate will continue.
Note about the conference: The Twitter feed (online and onscreen) added an extra dimension to the conference, with helpful links and places to go for more information. Think getting the smart kids’ notes after class. I recommend searching for #g2s or #gov20s on Twitter for more information. You can see the compendium of tweets here.
Hart Rossman posted several items about the Gov 2.0 Summit held September 9-10, and the implications for cybersecurity. Building on Hart’s posts, I wanted to discuss how the Gov 2.0 Summit offered insights into how the security community can embrace Gov 2.0.
Many thought leaders in the field were at the Gov 2.0 Summit, including U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, , Army Generals Sorenson and Justice, DoD Public Affairs Principal Deputy Price Floyd, and representatives from the Sunlight Foundation, Government Services Administration (GSA), Department of Homeland Security, White House, Google, ESRI, Facebook, Twitter, Department of Energy, and many more. The variety of subject matter seemed aimed to please everyone—but conference organizers insist that was the point. In writing this post, the problem was focusing on what matters to the security professional. There were several overall themes which permeated the Summit, and which also apply to the security field trying to balance openness and transparency with operational security (OPSEC). These themes, which were repeated over and over at the conference, were transparency, participation, and collaboration.
“These are not your grandfather’s wars. We do not always know who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.” –Army CIO and Lieutenant General Sorenson
First, transparency is ensuring identity and data in the era of Government 2.0. How do we trust identity and data online? Ensuring trust in the network is exponentially more important for soldiers, who must have trust that the intelligence provided is credible. Soldiers must know that the data is verifiable, and be confident to make decisions on the ground and engage the enemy. Gen. Sorenson highlighted the ways DoD is using social networking services (SNS), including on the continent of Africa to provide communications for humanitarian operations. In the civilian world, Ms. Judy Spencer from the GSA spoke on how it is important for the government to have an identity assurance mechanism to interact with 300 million people. It was also announced at the conference that government websites would now be allowing you to sign in with a Yahoo, Google, or other ID. For users of government websites, and the security community, the push for an open trust framework and “authenticated anonymity” should provide a level of assurance.
“Use social media to engage—not just push out messages.” –Defense Secretary Gates to Principal Deputy for Public Affairs, Price Floyd
Second, participation is ensuring that you are building communities of interest. The DoD is currently conducting a review of the use of SNS, and determining how the department should balance risk. Price Floyd spoke about the morale boost for soldiers to be connected with family and friends. Other uses include the real time updates to counter-insurgency manuals, lessons learned, and After Action Reports. (Although if it’s real time, is it just an action report?) The department is responding to Secretary Gates’ missive to engage by hosting town halls like this one, relaunching the DoD web site with ways to engage DoD, and encouraging the use of social media for recruiting and interacting with the public. Floyd is confident that the Web 2.0 policy will result in a well-balanced policy for both sides of OPSEC. A recurring theme of the summit was the people aspect —that SNS does not hinge on the technology,it is building a community of people.
“The power of collaboration is the power to get something done.” –General Justice
The third theme for the security community is collaboration. According to Gen. Justice, collaboration is one of the most important activities on the battlefield. The military has always used a rigid infrastructure and hierarchy, and now in the era of Web 2.0, needs to relearn how to be flexible. Studies have shown that 150 people is the optimal number for collaboration and working together to solve specific, well-defined problems. This is also, not coincidentally, the size of a company command in the Army. While DoD is at the leading edge of government in technology and Gov 2.0 principles, Floyd quipped that it would take 25 years for the government to develop Twitter, including several years just for a request for proposal (RFP). This is why government, and the DoD, need to incorporate open source and private applications to the security environment. At the Summit, Gen. Sorenson announced that the Army will soon launch a competition called Apps for the Army for those on the .mil domain to build new software that will help carry out the Army's mission. Gen. Sorenson also insists we need to teach soldiers to improvise with software like they do with hardware in the field.
The Gov 2.0 Summit provided a forum for discussion on the role of security in a digital government age. Indeed, the Office of Management and Budget will soon publish an Open Government Directive, promising the debate will continue.
Note about the conference: The Twitter feed (online and onscreen) added an extra dimension to the conference, with helpful links and places to go for more information. Think getting the smart kids’ notes after class. I recommend searching for #g2s or #gov20s on Twitter for more information. You can see the compendium of tweets here.
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Excellent, insightful article! Transparency will certainly be a huge challenge to balance with OPSEC!
Posted by: Jean Schortz | September 22, 2009 at 11:21 AM