We got some thoughtful comments on the blog post that questioned whether getting smarter information into the hands officials who can act on it is even possible. There’s the engineering problem of finding the needle in the haystack as well as the cultural issue of allowing your people to look through my haystack. We can probably solve the engineering problems posed by the joint effort of State and Homeland Security to pool resources and develop shared information and processes. Both of comments on the blog say that the cultural issues will be more difficult to solve.
There’s a good article posted at Military Review that touches on this. It addresses the fog of information created by network-centric warfare, which is the military version of having reliable, timely information and “connecting the dots.� And it concludes that training in both the science and art of battle is critical for commanders.
By assuming that current technology will reduce uncertainty and friction and by making information superiority sound automated, future leaders might develop unrealistic expectations, an overreliance on information systems, and the inability to appreciate the importance of mastering the art of battle command.
The info battlespace is essentially the same whether the enemy is hiding in the next village in Iraq or in the next apartment building in Chicago. Both Defense and Homeland Security officials are painstakingly trying to squeeze relevant intelligence out of data provided by hundreds of IT-supported systems.
Military commanders can be trained to make good decisions – even amid confusing circumstances and conflicting data. The U.S. military has more than 200 years worth of information management experience it imparts to its members. We should all benefit from that knowledge.
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