The following series will discuss Facebook and where I think the social networking site is heading.
Additionally, I'll detail where I would want to take the company if Zuckerberg magically gave me the keys to the CEO office after a theoretical Facebook IPO.
But first, I'm not going to entirely drop the WikiLeaks and Julian Assange developments I've been covering in this blog.
Instead, I'm going to combine both issues in Part 1 of "From Zuckerberg to Zealberg" with respect to recent comments regarding Facebook made by WikiLeak's Julian Assange.
Assange: Facebook = an "appalling spy machine"
In addition to infamous diplomatic cable leaks, Assange has indisputably stirred great controversy and has even amassed a considerable number of loyal and sympathetic followers wary of both the "shadowy" elements of government diplomacy and now the "shadowy" elements of search engines and social networking sites.
As with anything, however, Assange's comments must be taken with a grain of salt and scrutinized further.
This post will dissect Assange's claim and will give greater detail into how the CIA is likely to use Facebook for intelligence gathering purposes.
First, it should be noted that Assange is not the first to cry "spook" in regards to Facebook.
Vishal Agarwala is credited with a 2007 YouTube video that asserts a link between Facebook and the CIA:
While this 2007 YouTube video was mostly spread through alternative news sources, Assange's similar, more recent comments regarding the CIA and Facebook are likely to have refreshed suspicions for those privy to this YouTube video.
Additionally, Assange's comments are likely to have aroused fresh suspicions regarding possible CIA/Facebook collaborations for those who simply caught wind of Assange's comments via mainstream media sources.
Taken together, both Agarwala's and Assange's claims point towards an In-Q-Tel/Facebook connection.
In-Q-Tel is a venture capital firm tasked with keeping the CIA and the greater intelligence community technologically up to speed with the latest information technology solutions required for each agency's various operations.
While probably not as cool as "Q" and his MI6 gadget lair in the James Bond films, In-Q-Tel is without a doubt providing western intelligence agencies with cutting edge IT tools needed to manage massive amounts of data (among other things).
Desmond Llewelyn AKA MI6's "Q"
RIP (1914 - 1999)
To get a sense of how much data intelligence agencies deal with, it was recently revealed that the NSA amasses an estimated 74 terabytes worth of data every 6 hours (the rough equivalent of all the data stored in the Library of Congress' digital archives).
Given all this, what would a CIA / Facebook collaboration look like?
First, to give Assange credit where credit is due, there is a "special interface" for the FBI/CIA/NSA and other alphabet agencies.
However, public knowledge regarding this interface typically cites it as a means to expedite information requests, thereby digitally "streamlining" the sharing of vital information as opposed to the more costly "written, printed, and mailed" information requests from intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
But what would collaboration beyond crucial information requests look like?
Here is what I believe will occur in the near future (if not already occurring at early or even advanced stages):
Recorded Future is a software company that specializes in predictive analytics.
On May 3rd, 2010, both Google Ventures (Google's venture capital arm) and In-Q-Tel (CIA affiliated venture capital company) invested in Recorded Future:
Instead of trying to explain what Recorded Future does, I'll just share these videos so you can get a sense of the services the company offers:
Intro video:
Very cool "Obama analysis" video:
I am willing to bet that Recorded Future's technology and services will eventually be applied to Facebook's mountain of data.
Without a doubt, the CIA already uses Recorded Future's services as one of many information technology services for Open Source Officers (OSOs) and other agency analysts.
But imagine the possibilities if Recorded Future's technology is applied to Facebook the way it is applied to search engines, blogs, twitter feeds, and other Web 2.0 media...
First, Facebook has been indisputably influential in social revolutions in the MENA regions and other world regions.
What if Recorded Future's technology can be used to "predict the curve" and foresee revolutions, terror plots, disruptive activities, political changes, and countless other events that world governments and intelligence agencies are constantly seeking to detect and monitor.
Facebook is the perfect platform for this type of analysis and surveillance.
Queries and analyses using the Recorded Future platform could take countless forms, including the following obvious examples:
1) Categorizing Facebook users by their "religious views" info box and additional religious content in their page "likes" and overall profile.
By doing this, it is possible to monitor, map, and analyze important collective trends with respect to people of all world religions.
2) Categorizing Facebook users by their "political views" info box and political content in their page "likes" and overall profile info.
With this, it is possible to do the same for everything included in #1.
However, such analyses could also yield:
-Advanced information on emerging political movements.
-Election predictions with greater accuracy than Gallup and news agency polls.
3) Analyzing Facebook's meta-demographic data
With this, it could be possible to gather info on global population trends with better representation and statistical accuracy than government censuses.
Eventually, this could even evolve to the point of representing a "real-time" global census if you will.
In sum, Facebook's databank is arguably one of the richest and most extensive databanks available for past, present, future, and "real-time" analysis. While I don't think ties between Facebook and the intelligence community are as devious as Assange portrays them to be, this is an issue that will continue to attract intense scrutiny worldwide.
In the next coming post I'll share a way Facebook can go "toe-to-toe" with the recently IPO'd LinkedIn via a redesign of the Facebook interface to better suit both employers and employees alike.
