DARPA brings Web 2.0 prowess to the battlefield

An interesting interview about TIGR, a recently deployed DARPA project in Afghanistan and Iraq. With a timeliness which is impressive for its contemporary awareness, TIGR integrates many layers of data (satellite photos, census data, road conditions) with metadata generated by military patrols (attack reports, experience with certain houses, etc). In this way, knowledge that is lost when units cycle out of a certain districts is able to be transferred to their replacements. The interview gives a sense of the development process, infrastructure and the uses of the system. I wonder if this sort of thing will be deployed in domestic law enforcement. In any event, it is interesting to observe how the widespread fervor and innovation of Web 2.0 technologies in the civilian realm prefigure military applications — almost a reverse dual use to the things.  [link]