The Center for Strategic & International Studies’ Transnational Threats Project (TNT) has been a leader in demonstrating the value of open-source, international collaborative online networks (ICONs) to U.S. and foreign intelligence communities, industry, and academia.  As part of these efforts, TNT has established and operated several “Trusted Information Networks (TINs)” that use online platforms to connect groups of non-governmental experts across disciplines and borders.  These projects have been led and moderated by CSIS Senior Fellow Thomas M. Sanderson, Deputy Director of TNT.

In 2007, the first TIN project examined salafi jihadi terrorism in Europe and successfully demonstrated the power of collaborative open source networks for analyzing transnational threats.  In 2008, a subsequent project, the Trusted Information Network for Counterterrorism Southeast Asia (TIN-2), sought to further refine the TIN model by exploring extremism and transnational crime in Southeast Asia.

For TIN-2, TNT wanted a user-friendly online collaboration solution that would enable a world-class team of experts from around the globe to engage in information sharing and collaborative analysis.  TNT Program Coordinator David Gordon compared five potential collaboration solution providers, with the program ultimately selecting Mind-Alliance Systems. Mind-Alliance provided a password-protected collaboration environment fully customized to the specifications of the TIN project.

In December 2008 CSIS published a report titled “International Collaborative Online Networks: Lessons identified from the Public, Private, and Nonprofit Sectors” The report addresses key aspects of making an online collaboration network successful, including: trust, security, direct and indirect incentives, appropriate level of moderating, the degree of openness and including the right partners. “Although the concept of an ICON is simple in principle – an online community of interest that exchanges knowledge among its members – its execution is fraught with difficulties. As several experts have pointed out, most online communities of interest fail.”

“Mind-Alliance analyzed our needs and provided a user-friendly collaboration software solution to support discussion and analysis of transnational threats”  said Tom Sanderson, Deputy Director of the Transnational Threats Project

Utilizing the solution that Mind-Alliance provided, and CSIS’ know-how in operating online environments, TNT succeeded in bringing together a diverse group of experts to discuss and analyze extremist and criminal threats in Southeast Asia.

The TIN-2 project successfully demonstrated how the coordinated exploitation of open-source, non-governmental expertise can supplement government analysis of complex security issues.  Online collaborative systems, such as the one developed by Mind-Alliance for TNT, provide a viable and proven medium to tap this knowledge.