Hello Diggers,
I'm submitting this article, to let our community know about an important
project that I'm involved with, and that I think lots of others who frequent
sites like this one would also deem
interesting and important, and might want to contribute to it with design or
programming.
The project goes like this: In 2000, I met a gentleman in
The Defense Intelligence Agency "gets" this better than the rest of
the American establishment, and the
Anyway, Scott, among other things, is a veteran of the Korean War in which flew
carrier based F9F Panthers, and a retired Navy Commander. He later worked for
in Naval Intelligence, and also for Senator Claiborne Pell. He's seen a lot of
the machinery of war, and been a part of it. He just celebrated his 80th
birthday a few days ago, and he told me jokingly that he's a little worried
about his immortal soul :) So his idea, and for the 8 years at least, he's been spending his own time and money
traveling the world (so far India, Uganda,
Tanzania, Egypt, all over the U.S., Jordan, Japan, South Africa and
others) lining up university support for what he calls a "Peaceroom",
which takes the idea of a War Room as a center for situational awareness and
planning and turns it on its head. He's been very well received. He's a
tremendous source of subject matter expertise, and he envisions creating open
source software systems to empower citizens of countries all over the world
with information that would create that first line of defense against tyranny
cited by Thomas Jefferson: an informed public.
I should probably explicitly state that OSINT doesn't concern itself with
stealing technical secrets, any type of spying, or anything that is unethical,
illegal, or that could get someone killed, jailed, or executed for treason. A
good example might be preventing inter-state conflict over water, (a very, very
real possibility) by first of all informing the negotiators and decision makers
with accurate information about where the precious water is. Or supplying
relief organizations, which prefer to remain apolitical and refuse to work with
intelligence agencies, satellite imagery so they can determine the most
effective place to set up the refugee camp, because they can only afford to set
up one.
So that's my pitch to all of you. I invite anyone with concern for our future
on this planet, and enough passion to actually do something about it and help
conceive, design, and implement what should be some *really* cool software that
will be given to the world. The only requirement is that you speak either
English or Portuguese (those are the only languages I speak) or can work
through someone that does. Please go to https://sourceforge.net/projects/cspd/
and join the mailing lists. Drop by and share your creative ideas, and hear
ours about how software can encourage peace, development, and an elevated standard
of living for all. Scott will chime in when we get more people listening.
From Dr. Jones himself:
“There are some things that are done in War Rooms that we think would also be
helpful to do in Peace Rooms such as having an indications and warnings system
of developing crises. There are some important missions that War Rooms
don't have such as supporting humanitarian disaster relief operations, and
providing a neutral site for peace
negotiations. We think the Peace Room should facilitate and coordinate
the introduction of leading edge agriculture, energy, health, and environmental
enhancing technologies, and of course be involved in peace gaming at all levels
of society. Since peace is much more complex than war, the Peace Room
will need software tools and capabilities that War Rooms don't have. We
are searching for new ideas.”
Thank you,
Donald A. Dade
Peace & Emergency Action Coalition for Earth
(P.E.A.C.E. Inc.)
C. B. Scott Jones, Ph.D., President: sherlight@peaceroom.com
(830) 895-0770
FAX (830) 895-0771
P.E.A.C.E.
Revised
July, 2008
email: sherlight@peaceroom.com