I'm sitting in a Starbucks in Millbrae, California reading the good old San Francisco Chronicle (in paper form) and surfing the web at a wireless hotspot.
The Chronicle has an interesting story that's a tad ironic, given the cyber hacking revelations that emerged yesterday when the SIS saidthe Government had been subject to electronic infiltration allegedly by other Governments.
As the Chronicle reports: "As spy gear goes, a social-networking website doesn't quite have the same cachet as some of James Bond's high tech gadgets."
"But the US intelligence community is taking a page from popular online hangouts like Facebook and MySpace to help encourage operatives to share information. In December, agency leaders are starting a social-networking site just for spooks".
The "A-Space" will eventually include blogs, databases and libraries of reports.
Wow, I wonder if the spooks will be able to customize their A-Space pages to play the theme music from the Bourne Supremacy when they log in.
Apparently, access to this social network will be "stored behind a thicket of classified safeguards" but built using commercially available software. Sounds like a security breach waiting to happen, but given the communications breakdown between security bodies in the US in the run up to the 9/11 attacks which happened six years ago today, maybe social networking websites are a good way of getting everyone in the surveillance community on the same page.
I'm heading to Palo Alto now to meet up with the kiwi Segway Polo team www.poleblacks.co.nz who are training for the Woz Cup which will be played over the weekend in San Francisco's Goldengate Park.
It has to be one of the geekiest games around, but I've seen the result of a segway collision and it's as messy as any collapsed rugby scrum, worse even...
