Here’s the government-ese version via MERX :
“TITLE : STUDY OF SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS, INTELLIGENCE PREPARATION OF THE BATTLEFIELD/INTELLIGENCE PREPARATION OF THE OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AND COUNTER INSURGENCY
The objectives of the work are:
The identification of intelligence analysis requirements to use Social Network Analysis (SNA) techniques and methods in a counter-insurgency (COIN) context.
The production of a Reasoning Requirements (RR) Inventory for Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield/Intelligence Preparation of the Operational Environment (IPB/IPOE).
The production of a State-of-the-Art (SOTA) study of:
- SNA technology and tools
- Visualization technology and tools to support SNA
- Visualization technology and tools to support IPB/IPOE
- The production/gathering of relevant scenario and datasets relevant to automated reasoning in IPB/IPOE ….”
Here’s the plain language version:
H0w can we improve social network analysis (maybe automating some of the analysis) to better prepare to work or fight in a counterinsurgency environment?
A bit more detail in the Statement of Work from the bid documents here (PDF).
Deadline for bids to do the work: 5 Nov 10, 1400 EDT
My favourite verb from the bid documents: “sensemaking” (what analysts appear to do re: environments)
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