Information Sharing

What Is It?

Information sharing is one of those rare technology terms that actually sound like what they mean. Information sharing is the process of exchanging data among various computer networks, usually operated by separate organizations. Sounds like what happened when the first computer network was invented decades ago. But the phrase has evolved to a broader, more complex and, at times, cultural meaning. In the case of the federal government, it's loaded with plenty of the first concept (information) and little of the latter (sharing).

While the idea of information sharing has been around for years, the federal government didn't really begin to consider it as a wholly separate business process worthy of being pursued as a management goal until the late 1990s. That's when managers started to focus on just how vulnerable federal computer networks were, which presented an obstacle to consolidating systems and sharing information to create efficiencies.

Why Should I Care?

Information sharing moved to the top of the management agenda for many agencies after Sept. 11, 2001. The 9/11 commission, which Congress formed to find the causes of the terrorist attacks and to provide recommendations to prevent future assaults, concluded in its report released in July 2004 that a failure to share intelligence information was one of the leading causes of the United States' inability to stop the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the loss of United Flight 93.

"On Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI was limited in several areas critical to an effective preventive counterterrorism strategy. Those working counterterrorism matters did so despite limited intelligence-collection and strategic-analysis capabilities, a limited capacity to share information both internally and externally, insufficient training, perceived legal barriers to sharing information, and inadequate resources," commission members noted.

The Government Accountability Office focused on the federal government's need, especially law enforcement and intelligence agencies, to share information, putting the term in the title of a report on the commission's findings: "Reorganization, Transformation and Information Sharing." GAO concluded in the 2004 report that: "There is a continuing and heightened need for better and more effective and comprehensive information sharing. We agree the intelligence community needs to move from a culture of 'need to know' to 'need to share.' "

The importance of information sharing is evident in the title for the second-highest post at the Office of the Director for National Intelligence: associate director of national intelligence and chief information officer, intelligence community information sharing executive.

Information sharing lies at the core of the Defense Department's netcentric warfare strategy, in which all the military services move data, video, intelligence and other information seamlessly between commanders and troops on the battlefield. A frequently heard admonition in the Pentagon is that the information stored in a database does not belong to that office or service, it belongs to the public. It goes without saying that the services then have a moral obligation to share that publicly owned data with others.

The Latest on Information Sharing

Despite the terrorist attacks and the 9/11 commission's tongue-lashing of intelligence and law enforcement agencies for failing to share information, many federal agencies have yet to fully break through decades-old walls to exchange data.

In 2005, GAO placed information sharing on its high-risk list of government programs that face significant management problems, and it remains there today. GAO's latest high-risk report, released in January 2009, concluded that while agencies are developing an "information sharing environment, the scope, projects and milestones -- the roadmap -- for guiding the future [information sharing environment] were not fully defined" and, along with OMB, observed that "the expected results and metrics -- the system of accountability -- to ensure progress were not in place."

Lack of information sharing also has hobbled the health field. Congress passed a law in 2008 requiring the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments to share health data on soldiers and veterans as a result of inadequate care wounded soldiers received after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The two departments now exchange pharmacy and drug allergy information for more than 21,000 patients, an increase of 2,700 patients between June and October 2008. But in the same year, GAO reported that Defense and VA failed to develop metrics for measuring how information sharing improves health care, which "can be used as a basis to track and assess progress toward the delivery of new interoperable capabilities. In the absence of results-oriented goals and performance measures, the departments are not positioned to adequately assess progress toward increasing interoperability."

Nevertheless, several signs point to an improvement in information sharing among agencies. The FBI has begun to get its act together as well. After a $170 million bungled attempt to build a network to share evidence and files on investigations, a second shot to develop the system, a $450 million system called Sentinel, seems to be on schedule and should provide agents the ability to share all kinds of data. By following strict project management guidelines, the FBI's "acquisition methods should increase the chances of cost-effectively delivering required Sentinel capabilities on time."

The intelligence community has gotten serious about collaboration. "Information sharing must improve since it is central to our ability to anticipate and deter the ill intentions of our nation's adversaries," wrote Mike McConnell, head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in a February 2008 report on the agency's strategy to share information. The obstacle to sharing, he wrote, was changing the intelligence community's culture from a "need to know" specific information to a "responsibility to provide" mind-set.

One way is to reward employees who share information and write up those who do not. If members of the intelligence community hinder the sharing of information with colleagues, managers can include such actions in annual performance reviews. Thomas McNamara, program manager for the Information Sharing Environment initiative at ODNI, said the same disincentive to not share information should be applied to all government employees so the culture shifts from one based on "need to know" to "need to share."

Much of the improvement in information sharing can be traced to the advent of social networking tools. The intelligence community created the wiki Intellipedia. Wikis are online documents that allow users to edit -- add or delete information and leave comments -- in a grand community of sharing. Users have raved about Intellipedia's success in allowing agents to share intelligence, evidence, tips and background information.

In 2008, Michael Wertheimer, assistant deputy director for analysis at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said, "The last frontier used to be the acquisition of information. Now the last frontier is collaboration. We're not getting incremental gains [in intelligence] on the amount of information we collect. It is the degree we can link up people and collaborate."

Because 60 percent of the analysts intelligence agencies have hired in the past five years are relatively young, the community must adopt their Web 2.0 tools, such as wikis and blogs, Wertheimer said, adding the growth of Intellipedia has been phenomenal.

With the Obama administration stressing the need for an open government that collaborates more with the public, agencies could embrace social networking tools and information sharing in general more enthusiastically.

How to Get Started

Government Executive recently outlined what federal managers can do to improve the flow of information within an agency and among other organizations. Here are some of the highlights:

* Open an information sharing discussion to all

To get naysayers on board -- or at least cooperating -- they must be included in the discussion, said John Teeter, chief enterprise architect at the Health and Human Services Department. He works in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, which advises leaders on the development of a national health IT network that links federal, local and state governments as well as the private health care community.

"We seek everyone's participation," Teeter said. "Over time, the various agencies within HHS and in other federal communities have become experts in their own areas of responsibility -- they understand the policies, regulations and laws and the concerns of the constituencies. It makes sense for them to bring that knowledge to the more generic discussion." At the same time, employees at all levels start to feel invested. They view the advantage of sharing information in the broader context and are less resistant to open up access to the information under their control, he said.

* Use established relationships and foster new ones

Many executives credit growing collaboration between the Defense Department and ODNI to the longtime friendship of their two chief information officers, John Grimes and Dale Meyerrose, who announced his departure from ODNI in August 2008. The two have known one another for years, and in July 2007, signed a memorandum that established a common vision for information sharing among Defense and intelligence agencies.

"A lot of this is about personal relationships -- getting people in the room to work together and get to know one another on the human level," said Bruce McConnell, president of consulting firm McConnell International LLC. "Once that happens, it becomes about trust, rather than turf, and looking at the world as a place for collaboration, rather than maintaining control. But this can be a slow process."

* Provide incentives

Employees should be trained in secure methods of data exchange, McNamara said, and be rewarded when they participate in information sharing initiatives and penalized when they don't. Through the Information Sharing Environment Initiative, ODNI offers online training on how to manage information, customized to the missions of the agency and the role of the employee. The agency also issued a manual on how to protect privacy and civil liberties.

McNamara is working with the Office of Personnel Management to incorporate information sharing into performance appraisal systems, rating managers on how well they encourage collaboration and workers on whether they follow through. Agencies have been asked to report their progress on participation and training.

* Learn from catastrophic events

"There have been lessons learned from past experiences," Teeter said. "We start to say, 'What are the resources that we need to bring to bear based on those past experiences, and what is the data we need to ensure those resources can function effectively?' "

Since Hurricane Katrina, which resulted in many people losing access to vital information such as prescriptions when they were forced to evacuate, HHS launched pilot programs with public and private sector organizations to test their ability to exchange medical records electronically in emergency situations.