CSIS Studies the Digital Network Advantage

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has a new 47 page PDF report out titled International Collaborative Online Networks: Lessons Identified from the Public, Private, and Nonprofit Sectors. I thought the report was very interesting, and very well done. This paragraph in the summary is noteworthy.

As two organizations active in promoting international outreach for problem solving, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Central Intelligence Agency's Global Futures Partnership (GFP) convened a workshop that included leaders from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), international organizations (IOs), private companies, and governments. Representatives from each sector shared lessons learned from their respective outreach efforts and those of other organizations conducting similar activities. The workshop, which was held March 28, 2008, focused specifically on the use of international collaborative online networks (ICONs) as affordable and viable tools for connecting organizations across sectors and borders. Previous work by CSIS has highlighted the benefits of such networks, and the principles that they described remain the same; a large group of digitally connected individuals will usually be smarter than a small group of individuals collected in one place; unofficial online environments such as wikis tend to be faster at uploading new information that official Web sites; and blogs and online discussion groups are likely to spot new trends before the mainstream literature does.

This is not the first time CSIS has done research on new media and produced insights, with two other works (here and here) previously noting the value of new media. I have not read either of those reports.

I have observed the Think Tanks are evolving towards exploiting the web to move their content. CSBA recently published their Strategy for the Long Haul series using mp3 audio, and CSIS went a step further and has an entire section on iTunes. Personally speaking, the iTunes integration is very cool, I downloaded and listened to Asia-Pacific Trends: A U. S. PACOM Perspective with Admiral Keating and particularly enjoyed listening to him talk about his discussions with the Chinese about their desire to build a Chinese aircraft carrier. His answer to question regarding the RAND report on the Taiwan Strait scenario was also pretty good.

There is serious irony though, consider for a moment that CSIS is essentially in the information business and doesn't have a blog. This is going to sound harsh, and the question applies to many besides CSIS, but perhaps we should ask the question how seriously should an organization be taken when they don't even practice what they preach? Don't tell me organizations like CSIS are different or unique because defense content is 'special'. Don't be the guy suggesting any content production shop that sells ideas as a business can't find value in leveraging new information technologies for the information business, when they are busy being paid producing reports suggesting new defense technologies have value in the defense business.

Some have figured it out, but i note they don't know how to apply the model to national defense. Like I said yesterday, I'm surprised no one has tried to purchase the Small Wars Journal, or even attempt to produce a similar model.