Measuring the Value of Knowledge for Operators

(NRO) builds, launches, and operates systems which collect information from space. It responds to requirements from the Joint Staff, CINCs, DOD agencies, Central Intelligence Agency, National Intelligence Council, operational and service intelligence elements, Department of State, and other members of the intelligence community. In this maelstrom of requirements, systems developers such as NRO can begin to believe that the end game has more to do with mousetraps (systems) than mousing (customer needs). This tendency is exacerbated in a culture like NRO’s where some of the best and brightest engineers are attracted by elegant technical solutions that underpin all NRO operations. This is a danger similar to the criticism of earlier high definition TV which Nicholas Negroponte made in Being Digital. He asserted that research was misdirected at higher resolution pictures instead of improvements in the “artistry of content.” Simply put, in pursuing creative uses of cutting-edge technology NRO must continue to sharpen its grasp of the nature of customer tasks and the attributes of knowledge that enable them. This was the goal of a recent wargame, Forward Focus II, cosponsored by NRO and the Office of Net Assessment within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). Wargames provide a technique to determine the degree to which knowledge contributes to achieving operational objectives, the kinds of knowledge required by operations, and knowledge strategies needed to cope with various enemy forces and activities. Games have been increasingly utilized by OSD, the Joint Staff, and the services to explore relationships between information and