A-Space

The United States Intelligence Community A-Space, or Analytic Space, is a project from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's (ODNI) Office of Analytic Transformation and Technology to develop a common collaborative workspace for all analysts from the USIC. It is accessible from common workstations and provides unprecedented access to interagency databases, a capability to search classified and unclassified sources simultaneously, web-based messaging, and collaboration tools. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is the executive agent for building the first phase of A-Space. Initial operational capability was scheduled for December 2007. A-Space went live on the government's classified Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System 22 September 2008. A-Space is built on Jive Software's Clearspace application (which has been superseded by Jive's Social Business Software).

A-Space is part of what the Director of National Intelligence has identified as a critical piece of "Analytic Transformation":

Analytic Transformation seeks to change how we approach analysis, how we interact with our customers and each other, and is one of the principal priorities of the Director of National Intelligence. US Intelligence is engaged in a fundamental transformation of the Analysis mission at the national level.

Within the analytic transformation program, there are several initiatives under way in three areas:

For contrast, see perceived limitations of CIA information technology at CIA Information Technology.

A-Space, according to Andrew McAfee of Harvard Business School, is a means of sharing information that, in the normal course of events, might not be seen at all. He pointed out that "companies that rely heavily on innovation" spend considerable effort improving the communications among close colleagues. Mark Granovetter's insight, "The Strength of Weak Ties" (SWT) was that strong ties are not enough for the best innovative environments. Strong ties between people arise from long-term, frequent, and sustained interactions; weak ties from infrequent and more casual ones. A tool such as Intellipedia or A-Space encourages collaboration among people with weak ties, complementing the traditional "team-building" and "cross-functional management" characteristic of strong ties.

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