got geoint?

We hope everyone had a restful holiday weekend. Yes, summer is officially over, and it is time to gear up for the last stretch of 2010. Surely everyone wants to end the year out on a professional high note, correct? Well, guess what, GEOINT 2010 will be the perfect venue to do just that — to learn, networks and broaden your professional horizon. And what better way to prepare for GEOINT 2010 then by staying up-to-date on the latest GEOINT news…thus the Monday Morning Kick Off (well, Tuesday for this week) post. So, as we always say, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on.

Chinese Satellites Bump During Secret Maneuvers
A Chinese satellite may have intentionally nudged another spacecraft during secretive space maneuvers in near-Earth orbit, according to analysts. Such close encounters could allow China to practice rendezvous procedures between its future space station and other spacecraft, as well as learn about satellite formation flying, said Brian Weeden, a former U.S. Air Force orbital analyst and now technical adviser for the Secure World Foundation. The satellite rendezvous tests could also permit close-up inspection of another satellite, not unlike demonstrations performed by the United States and other countries in the past. Read the full Yahoo! News post here.

Chief Scientist Describes Future Technology
Humans today are still more capable than machines, but by 2030 that is absolutely not going to be the case anymore,” said Dr. Werner Dahm, the Air Force Chief Scientist, in describing one of the conclusions he reached during the Air Force’s first in-depth look at future technology in more than a decade. The man charged with providing independent, objective scientific advice to Air Force leadership was at the Air Force Association Technology Symposium Aug. 26 to make a presentation titled ‘Technology Horizons: A Vision for Air Force Science & Technology During 2010-2030.’ The report gives an informed analysis of how the world of science and technology will develop during the next 20 years and indentifies candidate technologies that offer the greatest potential return for limited investment dollars. Read the full Defence Talk post here.

Does All of Our Intelligence Data Pass The “So What” Test?
Data relevance is critical to achieving success in the Intelligence Community (IC). Simply put, everything that we do must pass the “so what?” test, and we need to move away from creating intelligence data for intelligence’ sake. This means that every intelligence product and briefing should have a clear goal and tangible outcomes. The unfortunate reality is that many of the IC’s efforts do not come close to passing this test. All too often, our intelligence lacks relevance or does not tangibly support a mission. The main issue is a lack of insight into goals based on achieving measurable outcomes. Read the full post from IMINT & Analysis here.

Geospatial Cloud Computing in Support of National Policy
A few weeks ago I once again had the pleasure of participating in a private discussion on cloud computing with Mr. Vivek Kundra. What struck me in this most recent meeting was his views on the need to infuse geospatial information into the national policy decision making process. To demonstrate this point, he highlighted that even though high rates of healthcare fraud can be linked to specific locations, our lack of a national geodata standard could potentially hamper the consistent enforcement of a national policy in this area. Read the full InfoSec Island post here.

New Zealand Earthquake Visualized in Google Earth
A strong earthquake that hit Christchurch, New Zealand on September 4 was one of the worst to hit New Zealand in 80 years. No deaths have been reported, but the earthquake caused devastation throughout the region of Canterbury. Flickr has put up a special page with some of the best user images of the earthquake, which show great damage on the buildings and structures in Christchurch. Read the full Mashable post here.

Defense Selloff Suggests Wall Street Doesn’t Get Pentagon Efficiency Drive
In June the Pentagon launched an efficiency drive aimed at freeing up money for military modernization. Faced with the prospect of flat defense budgets in the years ahead, defense secretary Robert Gates said he wanted to eliminate waste and redundancy in military spending so plans to buy the next generation of weapons could be kept on track. The push for greater efficiency should have been good news for defense stocks, because it signaled that military spending on technology could remain robust even as U.S. forces come out of Iraq and the federal government turns to deficit reduction. But investors don’t seem to be reading the announcements the way Gates and company intended. Read the full Defence Professionals post here.

Happy Tuesday! Enjoy the short week.

Tags: Air Force Chief Scientist, Chinese Satellites Bump, Dr. Werner Dahm, GEOINT 2010, Geospatial Cloud Computing, Google Earth and New Zealand Earth Quake, got geoint?, Intelligence Community, Intelligence Pass the So What Test, Morgan, MorganFranklin, United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, USGIF