More thoughts on TIA...

After spending some time thinking about the TIA's classification problems (see below), I decided to take a look at some DARPA documents to determine exactly what this project is supposed to entail. After doing some reading, I was blown away. A report presented to Congress made for some of the most entertaining reading I've had all year. I don't think there was a single paragraph that I didn't take exception to. The whole document read like a discursive case study built specifically for a Library and Information Science curriculum: the Foucauldian Panopticon-- it's in there; limitations to practical information retrieval-- you got it; indexing and classification impossibilities-- yup; complete ignorance of socially constructed truths-- of course; difficulties in tacit knowledge exchange-- certainly; and faith in Information Visualization to overcome cognitive overload-- absolutely.

For your reading pleasure, here's the report: Report to Congress regarding the Terrorism Information Awareness Program (May 20, 2003)

Luckily, the ACM provides a link to a foil for DARPA's tragic hero: Total Information Awareness Programs : Funding, Composition, and Oversight Issues

Personally, I think that I'll be spending a lot more time looking at this issue. First I'll have to sort out the acronyms: NGFR, ARM, TIDES, EARS, GALE, EELD, BioALIRT, MInDet, SSNA, WAE, RAW... oh my!