It seems as though everyone is jumping on the social media bandwagon these days. The government has even jumped on board. The intelligence community, including the CIA, the FBI and the National Security agency, began using A-Space, a social networking site dedicated to intelligence analysts that are a part of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, in September 2008. According to an article from Federal Computer Week, A-Space is an online collaborative site that will allow intelligence officials to be able to share information more easily and more rapidly. In an article from CNN.com, A-Space even has the potential for members of the CIA to discuss information on Al Qaeda.
To use A-Space, employees must be listed in the directory and prove who they are before they are granted access. Like Facebook or MySpace, users create profiles and others can post notes on their profiles. People can see what projects a user is working on and users will have access to a search function which enables users to look for content on other classified domains including those from allied countries! This collaborative site also allows users to have access to the highest level of classified information. This collaborative environment is building a community where users will depend on one another.
Michael Wertheimer, assistant deputy director of national intelligence for analysis, says in the article from CNN.com, that A-Space is not just a place where people can meet and share ideas, but also allows them to speak out loud for the first time. The goal of A-Space is to protect the United States the best way possible by analyzing all the information that is available. It is very interesting with new forms of technology such as social media tools, like Facebook and now A-Space, that boundaries are being crossed which have never been crossed before, like the sharing of classified information. I am very excited that government implementing this social networking site. I am sure that it will make collaboration easier for the government intelligence agencies and more efficient as well.