Thursday, July 17, 2008
Rape and the Military: An Unseen Epidemic?
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
An interesting presentation about rape and the military, including the Coast Guard.
For more information, see also Stop Military Rape/Military Rape Crisis Center.
Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008
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Monday, July 14, 2008
Broader reporting for the Coast Guard's featured domestic violence situation
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
I hope the Coast Guard has made substantial progress when this lights up on mainstream media sites. Without progress, this could blow up to be bigger than Deepwater (okay, likely not) or perceived failures in the marine safety community. Certainly, while not having the same personal impact and finality, this will likely have more impact than any of our accidents involving deaths over the last several years (Nathan Bruckenthal, Ronald Gill, Jessica Hill, and Steven Duque) as it touches a broader area of program failures.
Posted on Monday, July 14, 2008
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Domestic Violence and the Guardian Ethos
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
My Law & Order storyline generated a fair amount of feedback here on off-line. Wrote one particularly irate reader,
I find it ironic that you hide behind the same transparency that you seek to encourage.I'd love to hear more, particularly thoughts about how to "use this new medium to help bring about positive change and growth within the CG," but at the moment I'd like to focus on the link between this tale and the Guardian ethos as discussed recently by Admiral Allen.
Despite your ridiculous "disclaimer" in this posting you fail to demonstrate the good judgment or respect we expect from someone in the CG. The subject of your posting is a serious matter involving real people, with real consequences.
Regardless of the circumstances, I can't see how your distasteful attempt at satire or "fiction" here could help the situation one bit.
You should be ashamed of yourself. As a regular reader of CGBlog I keep holding out hope that you will use this new medium to help bring about positive change and growth within the CG...and then you publish something like this and I lose hope. And that"s the biggest shame of all.
As I review the timeline (one, granted, slanted by the provider but substantially substantiated by court documents), I am struck by the number of instances when the chain of events could have been broken and we'd be in a different place today. At each of those instances, some Coast Guard member didn't exercise their watchful eye over their shipmates or the members of the extended Coast Guard family.
The member's brother asserts that he returned home in 1995, his 6-year enlistment expired, a changed man. Perhaps it was some of the antics onboard the cutter, or a SAR case gone wrong, or some other incident, but it is clear that the member experienced a traumatic situation which had substantial impact on him. This is where the Coast Guard's Guardian ethos first failed. He did not get the assistance he needed at that time, and the experiences changed him. From what I have read, there's a distinct possibility the member suffered from undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder.
Fast forward to 2003/2004. At the end of 2003, he's fired from his federal job, and at the start of 2004 he's diagnosed with bipolar disorder. When the meds are working, all is well; when he's off the meds it only takes three days for the violent behavior to return.
In April 2006, he's back in the Coast Guard Reserve. Clearly, he didn't mention his two-year-old mental health diagnosis, nor did he mention his prescriptions. If he did, then that's the next failure of the Guardian Ethos as bipolar disorder is a disqualifying condition. (See also this page which specifically deals with military service and bipolar disorder.) It's also pretty clear that his prior brushes with the law, including several domestic violence incidents, were either not reported or overlooked. Perhaps someone thought they were doing the once-active duty Coastie a favor by helping him get back into uniform.
Within four months of enlisting, he is told by a more senior Coastie that the drugs he is taking for his mental health condition are disqualifying and he either needs to stop taking the meds or go through a medical board and ultimately be discharged from the Service.
Now, before you say this would never happen, I know for a fact that it could and it has. Plain and simple. And, the way this usually goes down is that the counsel is provided with a just-stop-taking-it look.
We fail, again at the Guardian ethos. Just as we in the Coast Guard generally don't understand domestic violence, we also don't understand mental illness. If a person truly needs medication to control a mental health issue, they truly need the medication. Sure, not taking the medications will likely not kill the individual, but it will certainly lead to further symptoms of the mental illness. While the counsel provider might believe he or she is helping the member by allowing them to stay in the Service, they are actively not helping the member. It is, in short, the antithesis of the Guardian ethos of taking care of our own.
There are other examples of failing the Guardian ethos, and they include both interactions with the member and interactions with the member's family.
This weekend's Saturday evening call showed the other side, however, an example of the Guardian ethos actually in action. They reached out, they listened, they promised action. May we see more Guardian ethos demonstrated not just with this situation, but in every interaction with our shipmates and all the members of the Coast Guard family.
Posted on Monday, July 14, 2008
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Sunday, July 13, 2008
Questions for leaders: The end of the series
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
Well, that's it for the leadership questions. We hope you had a chance to give a little thought to these questions.
You may have noticed that these questions drive in a little different direction than what you may have learned in LAMS or other Coast Guard leadership courses. The primary reason for this difference is that these questions form the basis for the Coast Guard's organizational leadership and management framework. As a generalization, LAMS and other CG leadership courses focus on personal leadership.
To learn more about the Coast Guard's organizational leadership and management framework, order or download your copy of the Criteria for Performance Excellence from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency within the Department of Commerce. And, if you want to learn even more, attend an offering of the CPEC Orientation Course which is coming to every district early next fiscal year.
Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2008
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Coast Guard moves (albeit slowly) on the domestic violence situation
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
If you've been following the domestic violence situation here and at Coast Guard Report, there's some good news this morning. On Saturday evening, the member's former spouse was contacted by the Seventh District chief of staff, a senior captain, and the senior attorney in the 7th District. These are the most senior Coast Guard leaders to contact the former spouse.
While they were unable to make assurances that the member would not travel outside the Seventh District and attempt to make contact with the former spouse, they did tell her that a military restraining order was issued today.
Aside: About damn time.
These two captains told the former spouse that there would be further investigations concerning all this issue. While I am of the mind that the member needs to serve his time already sentenced by the civilian courts, it seems that the former spouse has significant information about non-domestic violence issues concerning her former husband that don't bode well for the Coast Guard. In addition to the domestic violence, it seems there are likely issues concerning harm to living marine resources by the member and others, issues concerning national security in terms of naval assets (actions by the member), and several failures in checks, balances, and investigations concerning the member's enlistment in the Coast Guard Reserve.
Sadly, while it was news to the captains, none of this is likely news to regular readers of AN UNOFFICIAL COAST GUARD BLOG and Coast Guard Report.
What we may be looking at our systemic failures in recruiting, Reserve management, personnel security, and work life programs. Perhaps with some high level pressure, the various investigations concerning this particular situation will actually result in a look at the processes and systems in place within these various programs.
Meanwhile, at an undisclosed location, a woman waits awake while her daughter sleeps soundly. She waits awake because she still hasn't been assured her former husband isn't attempting to find her to carry out his repeated threats.
I, for one, applaud this recent action by these two captains. They have made an overture and opened dialogue with the member's former spouse; no longer is the Coast Guard hiding behind formal correspondence directed to congressional staffers and legal double talk directed to the spouse's attorney. All she wants is to know she and her daughter are safe; it appears she's one step closer to that knowledge.
Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2008
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Saturday, July 12, 2008
Leaders Ought to Ask #14
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
How do you manage and improve your key organizational work processes?
Posted on Saturday, July 12, 2008
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Friday, July 11, 2008
And now, allegations of where "the Coast Guard" dropped the ball
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
Nearly 1500 EDT, and no word on what the current state of affairs is with the domestic violence issue we and Coast Guard Report have been following this week.
I did receive an interesting document with allegations of where the Coast Guard dropped the ball with this entire situation; from the member's former spouse:
And, yes, if you're inside the CGDN, you don't get to see a thing as the document is posted to Scribd, a really slick document sharing site that the CG-6 has nixed from inside the data network. You'll have to go home or the library to use the document sharing tool that even Admiral Allen uses.If half of what the former spouse alleges is true, she's highlighted some pretty serious flaws in multiple Coast Guard systems and processes. I hope the Coast Guard begins a formal investigation (ala the Healey accident and other failures) to determine how we can create processes and systems to ensure this doesn't have to happen again.
Frankly, there is no reason for the fear this family has gone through.
Posted on Friday, July 11, 2008
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Leaders Ought to Ask #13
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
How do you design your work systems?
Posted on Friday, July 11, 2008
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Thursday, July 10, 2008
Status Report: That "other" ongoing saga.
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
Domestic violence, if you were wondering which "other" I'm talking about.
News received from the member's spouse: The district legal officer may not have handed the case up to next higher, but he did make huge progress, at least on the child support issue. He coordinated directly with someone at the state's health and human services department and will ensure the correct entries are made at PSC.
An aside: Let's hope so. Don't I recall a Coast Guard military justice case that was tossed out because the government didn't uphold it's side of the agreement, which was to ensure child support was paid. The Coast Guard messed up, and the money never was deducted and paid over to the spouse. He'd plead out the case, but he was saying the CG didn't follow through as they said they would, thus nullifying the agreement and the plea.
Anyway, that's good news. Next, let's see the member in the custody of CGIS or the United States Marshals Service by tomorrow, COB. Let the courts sort it out next week, but let's get him under the thumb of some agents now.
Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008
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COAST GUARD REPORT to suspend publication
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
While Admiral Robert Papp was accepting command of Atlantic Area, across town Mr. Thomas Jackson, publisher of Coast Guard Report, was penning a post to announce that due to other commitments, he was suspending publication of Coast Guard Report.
While Mr. Jackson and I have not seen eye-to-eye on a number of issues, I'm disappointed that the report will go dark. His was a voice that needed to be heard.
Mr. Jackson's suspension of Coast Guard Report highlights one of the fatal flaws with blogs: Blogs are, by their very nature, linked tightly to one, or perhaps several, contributors. Who's the editor or publisher of the New York Times or the Washington Post? No clue? Who's the publisher of AN UNOFFICIAL COAST GUARD BLOG, Coast Guard Report, The Daily Dish, or The Huffington Post . Chances are, if you read one of these blogs, you know who the publisher is.
Blogs are, by their nature, personality based.
Having said that, I also know that blogs are fluid, and during Mr. Jackson's suspension of publication, someone will fill the void.
In the mean time, we here at AN UNOFFICIAL COAST GUARD BLOG wish Mr. Jackson every success in his new business endeavors.
Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008
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This mess is not going to clean itself up: The continuing domestic violence saga
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
One thing that Mr. Jackson has not reported is that the former spouse of the member has gone to ground. Yesterday, she packed up her things and pulled a Dick Cheney with her daughter, moving to an undisclosed location.
Why? Well, yesterday she learned that the member's New England attorney has removed himself from being the attorney-of-record for the member... leaving the member without counsel in New England, where he's been sentenced to three years in the big house.
On top of that, the Coast Guard has been unwilling to ensure the former spouse that the member is not on a Coast Guard facility. That's right, no one in the Coast Guard is willing to ensure her that her former spouse isn't headed off to complete the threats he's made.
She's gone to ground, and rightfully so.
A senior officer with substantial command experience wrote me this week saying,
The domestic violence thing is disturbing. Are you sure the Sector Commander is aware? I have issued military restraining orders based on much less.Indeed. In this particular case, the member's former spouse and family have heard nothing from the sector commander. All communications are now coming from the district's senior legal officer.
And, it appears from this bystander that this senior legal officer is moving fairly slowly and is not acting from a "Guardian Ethos" stand-point. In his latest communications, this senior officer has told the member's former spouse that she must ensure a "demand letter from NH DCS" is "issued to the USCG requesting/demanding garnishment of wages."
Like they don't have the information to make it happen already? Hell, I have the iniformation to make it happen already. And the legal officer is unwilling to help out?
Meanwhile, the member's child, who is in the sole custody of the former spouse, hasn't received a dime of support.
My counsel, to anyone who cares:
- Sector Commander: Issue a military restraining order and then make contact with the former spouse and tell her the member is confined to a some location and isn't going to take off.
- District Legal: Bounce this one to MLCA and let the senior legal officer in Atlantic Area sort it out.
- Personnel Services Command: Start garnishing the wages.
- CGIS: Contact the U.S. Marshall Service and figure out how you're going to get the member turned over to state authorities.
- CG-1: Get a handle on how to handle domestic violence issues and make certain everyone in the Coast Guard knows what to do. This can't be the thing we ignore because it's too painful or we don't understand or we don't want to involve ourselves in "private" situations.
- CG-1: Revisit the current policies on prescription drugs for mental health issues. There is a possibility that had the Coast Guard not banned the use of meds for certain mental health conditions that we never would have gone down this path.
Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008
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Leaders Ought to Ask #12
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
How do you build an effective and supportive workforce environment?
Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008
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Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Organizational Leadership in a New Era
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
The leaders who will thrive and whose organizations will flourish in this era of ubiquitous electronic tattle-tales are the ones who strive to make their organizations as transparent as possible.When Admiral Allen spoke at the Sterling Conference this past spring, he told the entire audience that blogs are "part of the organizational profile for the Coast Guard" and that the Coast Guard must learn to operate in this new environment of multiple lines of accountability and oversight.
Over at Leading Blog, Michael McKinney gives us 5 Leadership Lessons: Transparency. In addition to Number 1, posted above, there's this one:
Legislation alone cannot make organizations open and healthy. Only the character and will of those who run them and participate in them can do that. The first time a top executive blows up or punishes someone delivering bad news, a norm is established. If leaders regularly demonstrate that they want to hear more than incessant happy talk, and praise those with the courage to articulate unpleasant truths, then the norm will begin to shift toward transparency.Meanwhile, it seems that no bloggers were invited to today's media availability with Vice Admirals Papp and Peterman. I received, this morning, an email from the Public Affairs Officer at Atlantic Area:
Regarding your request to attend this afternoon's media round-table, we appreciate your interest but at this time are limiting participation to local print and TV media.Well, at least this time they didn't say we weren't media.
I'm not so sure that Admiral Peterman's endorsement for reporting and commentary of all stripes is going to hold for much longer.
And I pray I'm wrong.
Posted on Wednesday, July 09, 2008
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Allowing domestic violence is failing at Admiral Allen's call for the Guardian ethos to include our own shipmates (Part 1)
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
How did we get where we are?
First, let me tell you where we are. We are at a place where a woman, in trying to protect her child, has to get bloggers involved in order to get any action whatsoever.
That, dear reader, is a sad place to be.
But I, I am more interested in how we got here. I think there are many tales and many truths, and I'm not sure I could sort a thing out, so I'll just tell a little story I recently came up with. I'm thinking it might make for something of an episode on Law & Order: Coast Guard Sector.
Please note, the following is a piece of fiction and is not meant to represent any actual person or events in reality. It's fiction. Like all Law and Order stories.
This story actually starts back in 1995, or perhaps even earlier, say 1989. You see, in 1995 a young boatswain mate assigned to a small boat station had the case of a life time. It was a case that not only grossed him out, but it made him fear for his own life. 1989 was when he joined the Coast Guard.
He'd come into the Coast Guard as a young buck of eighteen, just days shy of nineteen and an ego-enhanced psyche. His first tour after boot camp was on the mighty TAMAROA, hunk of steel more than 50 years in service. For fun, as the TAM would cut holes in the ocean, the young nonrate would lead the others on a killing spree, hooking dolphins and sharks and porpoises for fun, laughing as they writhed on the deck. It got to be an energizer, something to break the monotony of the day.
Over Halloween in 1991, a Nor'easter blew New England and the north Atlantic with a fury that hadn't been matched since Poseidon held epic judgments at his island palace. The TAMAROA was under way, within hours of learning of a couple of vessels who didn't seem to understand the fury of a little ol' nor'easter.
We're not sure what our young hero did during those rescues during that perfect storm. We'd like to think he was in the water, pulling survivors to the hulk of the former navy salvage tug. But we don't know. We do know that over beers years later, he would allude to great deeds and a skipper who went out of his way to ensure our hero would not receive the deserved recognition.
A couple of years later, while serving as a coxswain at a New England station, our young hero leads an intrepid crew on one of those missions that bred the idea that you had to go out, but you didn't have to come in. He never would have thought it possible after battling Poseidon those October days that he'd face anything that took his breath away. But, he did; and his breath slipped away, bidden to hear secrets yet untold.
Soon after this case, the young boatswain mate began to drag down, mentally, into a long stupor. And, in this stupor, where nothing that once mattered mattered anymore, he let his enlistment expire. One day he was standing watch, nearly fearing the churn of the water, and the next day he was standing on the side of the road dreaming of freedom along the path ahead.
Things turn for the worse, and then in November 2002, our hero is arrested for assault and battery. Since the charge is that he hit his wife, certain domestic violence actions kick in, and he looses his right to carry any sort of firearm.
By late 2003, things have gotten really troubling. Right before the holidays, he gets canned from his job as a federal corrections officer. It hadn't been what he set out to do, be a CO, but it was a good gig. And he didn't have to get underway.
But the mood swings had picked up, and then he was tossed aside from the job at the big house. He'd been brewing for more than eight years now. The rage would come quicker, and sleep would never come. Images flooded his mind uncontrollably, and the hair on the back of his neck stood straight whenever he saw a ripple on the water or could smell the salt in the air.
The first month of the new year, 2004, finds our young veteran diagnosed with bipolar disorder and he starts a regime of drugs. His wife of several years noted that on the drugs, he was a joy to be around; within three days of stopping his medications, he'd be violent with her and everyone else in his family.
In October 2004, he loses all parental rights to his children from his first marriage.
Things have spun such that our young man is unemployed by the summer of 2005. He decides to go back to school to pursue that degree he'd been so keen on passing by; he gets a financial aid package that includes more than 12K in cold, hard cash. It's hard to pass up that kind of money, and pretty soon he's sitting behind the wheel of a sweet Ford pickup truck, and any notion of attending class finds a place to go and hide.
In April 2006, our now-not-as-young veteran is back in the Coast Guard, this time as a reservist assigned to a small boat station along the New England coast. By the end of that year, our man has been expelled from his home, caught some sleep in a spare rack at the station, and had several violent outbursts. An opportunity to go on active duty providing waterside security for high value military vessels is an opportunity to escape and try to forget.
He'd had a troubling number of months: threatening his wife, whom he really did love (he told himself), storming out of the counselor's office, the counselor to whom he'd been given a direct order to see. There was that really ugly week at the height of the heat of the summer when our hero had been told to stop taking his meds, nearly killed himself and his wife on discovering she'd been talking with someone at the unit, and nearly killed some six dozen puppies by leaving them in the van under the hot sun.
Doing a real mission, and racking up some good underway time, would be a joy compared to feeling torn between wanting to provide and wanting to destroy.
So, at the end of the year, our hero goes on active duty to serve as part of a security detachment providing escorts and waterside security to nuclear submarines and war-bound merchant ships.
And, it's a good gig. He's making base pay, E-5 over six with BAH and BAS, along with $6K a month for lodging and meals. And, while he ought to be sending money home to support his daughter, he just wants to have fun. So he rationalizes, which is easy since his mind is way off balance, chemically, and he has a great time when he's not standing duty.
But our story is far from over. More to follow...
Posted on Wednesday, July 09, 2008
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Leaders Ought to Ask #11
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
How do you engage your workforce to achieve organizational and personal success?
Posted on Wednesday, July 09, 2008
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Modernization: Impact on civilian employees?
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
A person with an interest in the impact of the Coast Guard's modernization initiative on civilian employees sent me this released modernization ppt brief:
Update 9 July 2008 @ 1100 EDT: I received a voice mail this morning from a supporter telling me that there was "concern" that I had posted pre-decisional information. The first slide was clearly marked Public Release Authorized. The person who provided me the ppt said, "To my knowledge, there is no confidentiality attached to these documents." However, it appears that perhaps the cover slide was releasable and the rest of it not. I'm not sure. Anyway, I'm removing the embedded slide show from here and Slideshare. When I have further details, I will make a new post.
As you check it out, you'll note that it is marked both releasable to the public as well as pre-decisional. I'd say there's nothing loyal readers haven't seen before, and that much is still up in the air.
Wrote the concerned citizen who forwarded this to me:
I would be interested in seeing broader debate on these proposals, which are "predecisional" in that they do not have Congressional approval. . . . Ideally, I would like to see the Coast Guard rely more on a dedicated civilian workforce, and less on contractors, and there is a sense that this reorganization will take USCG in the opposite direction.
Posted on Wednesday, July 09, 2008
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Tuesday, July 8, 2008
A Coastie laid to rest and a call to take care of our own
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
We told you two weeks ago about the untimely death of Ensign Christopher M. Symons, a reservist assigned to Sector San Diego. Mr. Symons died in an auto wreck on I-5 in southern California as he was returning home following an IDT period where he'd participated in his first Coast Guard boarding as a newly minted boarding team member. Needless to say, the accident is a tragedy.
Ensign Symons was laid to rest Monday a week ago. A detail from the Coast Guard Ceremonial Honor Guard was, indeed, on hand to render honors, and their was a fly-over of Dolphin H-65 helicopters. As one of Mr. Symons' ROCI classmates noted, "He would have gotten a kick out of that." As a pilot, and as a want-to-be Coast Guard aviator, no doubt he would have.
Mr. Symons died in a single vehicle accident on I-5 not some 45 minutes after leaving the Sector offices following his all-night boarding, his first as a qualified Boarding Team Member. I can only imagine he was psyched, thrilled, and tired. I have not heard what the cause of the accident was, but I can presume that alcohol and drugs were not a factor, but exhaustion might well have been.
All of us have likely driven when we were really too tired to be operating a vehicle, particularly at highway speeds. I can remember driving the college president to a development engagement in Boston when I was an undergraduate. Like most young people, I was superman, and I'd been painting Hartford red the night before driving the president up to Boston. Somewhere along the way, I dozed off and awoke when the tires on the right of the car were making an tremendous clatter. I saw the president, reading letters and correspondence in the back seat, look up at me; his eyes were wide in the rear view mirror.
He never said anything, and I was frightened awake.
It could have had a much different outcome.
Last week, Admiral Allen penned an All-Hands message where he wrote that recently
we have shouldered the heavy burden of external scrutiny, self appraisal and accountability associated with operational MISHAPS, off duty accidents, and insensitive behaviors that demeaned ourselves and our shipmates.I don't know what happened in Mr. Symons car the morning of the accident; I don't know how long he'd been awake or whether or not he'd pumped up with caffiene. I don't know, and I'm not going to guess. I'm sure plenty of people are doing it to themselves. But what I do know is that this incident falls squarely in Admiral Allen's charge for us to expand the Guardian ethos to take care of our own.
While these incidents may not appear so, they are linked. They represent what may be a blind spot in our rear view mirror, or the contact lost in sea return on the radar, or the threat that is hiding in plain sight, or our own failure to recognize that we should step forward to prevent something bad from happening. It is a loss of situational awareness about our own shipmates. Collectively, these experiences remind us that we must be each other’s Guardian. It should not take a command directive to prompt us to remind someone to wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle. We should not sit idly by when a shipmate announces he or she is driving 24 hours straight to see their family or fiancée. Just as you would not disregard briefings and required checklists before executing operations, you must intervene before shipmates put themselves at risk on watch or on liberty. Likewise, we must respect the strength our Service gains from the diversity of our workforce. We should not treat our fellow Guardians any differently than we would treat those we are trying to rescue or save. We cannot afford the loss or injury of one single person. The effect on families and friends is devastating and everlasting. The effect on the Coast Guard erodes our capability, competency, and capacity to serve the Nation. We need each and every one of you. We must be Guardians of one another on and off duty.
It's not easy. I have a colleague who makes a 500 mile trip from home to the office on a regular basis. Driving through the night is note unusual for him. Like the college president, perhaps like Mr. Symons' shipmates, I haven't said anything. I have failed Admiral Allen's challenge.Let us all commit to not failing but to taking on with vengeance Admiral Allen's challenge for us to extent the Guardian ethos to those with whom we serve, shoulder to shoulder.
Photos with this post (1, 2, 3, and 4) are all Official Coast Guard Photographs, released in the public domain, available at CGVI, and were taken by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jetta H. Disco.
Posted on Tuesday, July 08, 2008
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Open Source Conference open to Coasties (and others)
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
The use of Intelink as a set of tools for Coasties to do their jobs better and increase organizational performance seems to be taking off. In the last day, two senior officers have contacted me requesting coaching on how to use the tools within their respective organizations. More on those questions to follow in another post.
We would very much like to advertise our conference, the 2008 DNI Open Source conference on your blog. We feel as though the readers of your site would benefit greatly from attending this conference, thus we would like to post the invitation document if at all possible. Thank you for your cooperation.
Here's a little bit from the press release DNI has released:
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is pleased to announce the “DNI Open Source Conference 2008: Decision Advantage” to be held on Thursday, 11 September and Friday, 12 September, 2008 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington DC. We invite participants from the broader open source community of interest including academia, think tanks, private industry, federal, state, local and tribal entities, international partners, and the media to attend.What an awesome opportunity. I would certainly hope that members of the Coast Guard's IC take advantage of this opportunity. I'll not be there; I'm not sure I can really articulate why I'd attend. I am, however, holding out for the WIRe and ICES Conference which will be held the same week.
Building on the success of the first DNI Open Source Conference held in July 2007, this two-day event will highlight ideas and contributions from open source experts residing outside the US Intelligence Community. The conference will raise awareness about open source and offer a unique networking opportunity, with projected attendance of over 1500. This premier gathering of the broader open source community will be free and open to interested members of the public who register online in advance. The conference will offer numerous sessions and several keynote presentations from senior government officials; confirmed speakers include Assistant Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Open Source (Acting), Mr. Daniel S. Butler, and Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Collection, Mr. Glenn A. Gaffney.
Please note: The DNI Open Source Conference registration can only be completed via the Web site. All registrations must be received no later than Thursday, 31 July 2008; early registration is encouraged due to space limitations and demand.
Posted on Tuesday, July 08, 2008
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Leaders Ought to Ask #10
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
How do you manage your information, information technology, and organizational knowledge?
Posted on Tuesday, July 08, 2008
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Using the tools provided: Collaboration and information sharing on Intelink #5
Posted by Peter A. Stinson
Here's a little skit to put things into perspective. My thanks to Chris Rasmussen for allowing me to adapt his work (which he adapted from someone else's work... which seems to be the nature of the Internet).People, we should work within a federal government without walls. Those old walls served as stove pipes and rice bowls; they created a government that was both unresponsive to the citizens of the nation and unknowing of what was happening elsewhere in government, even in organizations with similar missions. Those old walls; they need to go.
And those old walls need to be knocked down by people with new skills and innovative ideas. People who thrive on wikis, listen to collaborative lip-service from most, and fear managerial reprisals for rocking the boat. Who's going to sell Knowledge Management (KM) to the federal agencies? You? You, Mr. Security? You, Mr. Accreditation?? We in KM have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.
You scoff at wikis, curse social bookmarks and blogs. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what we know: The federal government (and particularly the Executive Branch) must reign-in stovepipe applications and change the need-to-know culture to a need-to-share; coming together will save money and, more importantly, lives.
And my very existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to some, drives collaboration! You don't want to know the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at senior staff meetings......you want me on that wiki. You NEED me on that wiki.
We use words like open source, rewards for collaboration, and web services. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent trying to get information to the people who need it, which includes state and local governments as well as the private sector. You use them as a punch line!
I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to people who rise and sleep under the very blanket of collaboration I provide and then question the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just say "thank you" and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you get an Intellipedia account or start blogging. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think is not “real work.”
If you'd like to see a list of social media buzz around Mr. Rasmussen and his work, check out his user page on Intellipedia.
Posted on Tuesday, July 08, 2008
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Labels: by Peter Stinson, Intelink, knowledge management
