Information Sharing

Providing secure mobile devices to the warfighter-a top DISA priority-could have the potential to completely transform battlefield communications and information sharing.

It's a wide world out there, and U.S. government agencies can use all help available to catch the bad guys. The Army's Biometrics Identity Management Agency is tasked with and has undertaken the job of coordinating biometrics across the Defense Department, patching together the databases of Justice, State and Homeland Security in the endeavor. Are these efforts reaping benefits yet, and can this coordination be achieved seamlessly? Read the full article and share your views.

The ultimate goal is to create an overarching framework that standardized CUI infomation to promote the sharing of data.

"If you imagine Second Life is just a game, you're missing the point."--David Wennergren, Defense Department Chief Information Officer

Experts pondered the implications and challenges for sharing data between military and civilian organizations within the U.S. government.

In "New Document Provides Framework for Interagency Data Sharing," Henry Kenyon describes a newly released document that sets common standards for data security and risk management: the NIST Special Publication 800-37, Revision 1, Guide for Applying the Risk Management Framework to Federal Information Systems: A Security Life Cycle Approach (NIST SP-800-37).

"Everybody imagines that everyone wants to share information because somehow it will make things better. That's a huge assumption, and it may not be what you think it is." -- Capt. Timothy Spratto, USN, JCD&E Capabilities Solutions Group lead

What does the United States need to make its efforts in Afghanistan successful? According to Dr. Linton Wells II, the answer is sharing unclassified information.

While the push forward for better collaboration and information-sharing capabilities will require technical advances, the experts at today's NATO workshop in Brussels, Belgium, are struggling with an even bigger challenge than connecting the bits and bytes.

This is my take on the AFCEA, Northcom and George Mason University conference on "Inter-agency, Allied and Coalition Information Sharing," which was covered on SIGNAL Scape last week. No, we still can't connect the dots as well as hoped and never will, but conferees agreed that what matters most is the thoughtful and trusting use that humans could make of what information manages to flow through IT systems, however improperly they may be connected.