I am impressed that real change is taking place and, "sure, it is painfully slow at times", but being an optimistic realist, I believe we should give credit where it's due. The NSA has gone out of their way to not only reach-out to small businesses (to a greater extent than any other IC agency) but is reshaping how they do their job, organizationally. They are also shifting the direction of their IA mission. They stand out—relative to the other fifteen, as the most responsive to market pressures and the need for change.

Nothing to report on the zero based defense intelligence review or the Afghan Strategy review, but as indicated last month I have just finished reading President Bush's book DECISION POINTS, which ironically I enjoyed while being disappointed. In a sound bite, I found this presidential memoir insightful [about the Bush view of events] but not very revealing about his motivations. The 43rd President tells us much about "what" and "how" he made decisions, but little about why he made the decisions he made beyond a drumbeat that it was "the right thing to do.” Making me ask as I read "so how did you know what was the right thing to do?" such as lowering taxes while embarking on a Global War on Terrorism; accepting the intelligence on Saddam's weapons of mass destruction (WMD); or not questioning the clarity of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear weapons program?

Troops now have a secure means to share videos. With the unveiling of milTube, the latest addition to milSuite, the military work force no longer needs to turn to YouTube—a practice the higher echelons frown upon—to share training or professional development clips.

A groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) project seeks to have sensors accepting and transmitting information in a method similar to the human brain.

U.S. and allied forces operating in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan are receiving new handheld tactical radios designed to provide secure communications among the diverse militaries.

If you are an enterprise technologist in or out of the Federal Government, please take time to watch the entire presentation below. It captures the entirety of the presentations and majority of the conversations at the White House Forum on Information Technology Management Reform. I recommend you watch the entire presentation for several reasons. If you are a student of IT and its governance, you will see what a good strategy looks like. If you are a student of federal policy, you will gain insights into what may be some of the most important shifts underway in the federal space today. If you are an integrator or technology vendor who served federal users you will learn a bit more about how your customer will be shifting in the future and how you can better position to help. And if you are an enterprise technologist you will learn of some very important things under way that will make your life easier and more productive.

The Air Combat Command is offering an information-sharing approach and visualization tool to facilitate decision making based on knowledge rather than available technology. As this strategy moves out, it will affect not only the U.S. Air Force but also the U.S. Defense Department and industry.

The CTOvision.com list of Disruptive IT has just been updated. This list reviews the companies regarded as having very high potential to change the way IT is done in large enterprises.