TECHNOLOGY AND THE BUSINESS OF GOVERNMENT

Intelligence agencies still might have problems communicating in the real world, but in the virtual world they soon will be able to collaborate directly anytime from anywhere. At least that’s the plan.

Comment on this article in The Forum.A March 20 announcement that IBM will incorporate virtual-world-builder Forterra in its Unified Communications and Collaboration platform is intended to slam a wrecking ball into the Tower of Babel created by the lack of interoperability among agency communications systems. Indeed, Babel Bridge is the name of the platform, which results from the melding of Forterra’s On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment 3-D platform with IBM’s Lotus Notes calendar Sametime.

According to a news release from the two companies, the platform would allow agencies to instantly share information and interact in a synthetic world to plan operations and take real-time action in the real world. The companies outlined a scenario in which FBI agents, intelligence operatives on the ground and agents from Britain’s MI5 must cooperate to take down a terrorist cell. Babel Bridge would allow all the players to re-create the location, rehearse the mission in a private virtual space and, at the same time, share streaming video audio and images from field agents and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Forterra will provide plug-ins to the Sametime program so users can schedule, conduct and attend meetings; share documents and applications; use whiteboards; and review, approve and take actions all in virtual spaces. Forterra’s OLIVE platform already is developing training capacity for the military and the Homeland Security Department. The company has re-created Baghdad, the Stanford University Medical Center and a hotel conference center in its virtual world. (See video below.)

In September, strategic investment firm In-Q-Tel, based in Washington, dropped $1.4 million on Forterra. In-Q-Tel finds innovative early-stage technologies that intelligence agencies might find useful and works with the companies developing them for the commercial market to make sure agencies’ needs are taken into account. “We believe secure virtual worlds integrated with unified communications and collaboration will enable users to engage the right subject matter experts within and between organizations to analyze complex situations,” said Steve Bowsher, In-Q-Tel’s executive vice president of investments. In April 2007, Gartner, the Stamford, Conn., information technology consulting firm, predicted that 80 percent of Internet users and Fortune 500 enterprises will be participating in virtual worlds by 2011.

In 2007, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, created the Analyst Space for Exploitation (A-SpaceX), a social networking space for intelligence analysts that was to include a virtual world. The CIA has maintained a page on the social networking site Facebook and ODNI’s Intellipedia, modeled on the online reference guide Wikipedia.