a day with the cia: how web 2.0 could have prevented the war in iraq

I was invited to be on a panel earlier this week in northern Virginia, hence the trip around D.C. Boy was I surprised when I found out the audience would be made up of folks from across the intelligence community -- the C.I.A. in particular.

I even got a seat next to Anil Dash (he didn't introduce himself as the NYTimes goatse guy, but if he had, I would have asked for his autograph). He even wrote a fantastic piece explaining lolcats.

The attendees were primarily interested in picking our brains about getting the most out of wikis, blogging, and voting things up/down (this is where reddit came in). This is all in an effort to better share information -- and assure it's of the highest quality -- in order for policy makers to make the best possible decisions. Seemed reasonable to me.

Admittedly, my headline is pretty hyperbolic, but these kinds of tools (which seem rather hackneyed to the average web 2.0er) could go a long way toward improving things within the intelligence community. But then I guess it's still up to the decider.

I even suggested including a "slam dunk" icon to flag the best pieces of intelligence.

But I don't think they took that too seriously -- my joke got some laughs (and a few boos, too, heh).

Just as long as I don't end up on a list...

(and maybe I'll get invited again next year!)