Robert David Steele

:"For other people named Robert Steele, see Robert Steele (disambiguation)."Infobox Person
name = Robert David Steele

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caption = Robert David Steele presents at The Last HOPE July 20, 2008
birth_date = birth date and age|1952|07|16
birth_place = flagicon|United States New York City, New York
occupation = Open source intelligence advocate.
website = [http://www.oss.net http://www.oss.net]
footnotes =

Robert David Steele Vivas (b. July 16 1952 New York City), is known for his promotion of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT). [ [http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/12/how-to-restore.html Wired] article "How to Restore Spies Credibility: Go Open Source" published December 14, 2007] He is a former Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer for twenty years and was the second-ranking civilian (GS-14) in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence from 1988-1992.Fact|date=February 2007 Steele is a former clandestine services case officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. [ Agee, Philip. "Inside the Company: CIA Diary". Penguin Books, 1975. ISBN 0-14-004007-2 p. 528 ] cite news|author=Robert D. Steele|title=Amazon.com forum post|url=http://www.amazon.com/review/RW0IQFMYESEVG/ref=cm_cr_rev_detmd_pl?%5Fencoding=UTF8&cdMsgNo=7&cdPage=1&cdSort=oldest&cdMsgID=Mx11LJQY2SOXZU5#Mx11LJQY2SOXZU5
accessdate=2008-03-29|date=2008-03-29] He is the founder and CEO of [http://www.oss.net OSS.Net] , Inc. as well as the Golden Candle Society. [ [http://sev.prnewswire.com/aerospace-defense/20060419/DCW02619042006-1.html US Intelligence Upside Down and Inside Out, Less Than 20% Effective] ] Steele also was a member of the Adjunct Faculty of Marine Corps University in the mid-1990s.

Career

He spent his early years, two decades, resident in Latin America and Asia as the son of an oil company executive. Steele has an BA in Political Science; an MA in International Relations; and an MPA in Public Administration. He resigned from the military in 1993.

He is commonly associated with the Open source intelligence (OSINT) movement and coined the terms "virtual intelligence" and "information peacekeeping." He argues that U.S. intelligence reform is needed, and that the private sector can perform a high percentage of U.S. open source intelligence needs and reduce cost to the U.S. Government. He advocates for "collective intelligence" or "the wisdom of the crowd" (what Howard Rheingold calls "smart mobs") and for hackers as a national resource.

Steele, an international proponent of OSINT [Winn Schwartau (1996), "Information Warfare" ISBN 1-56025-132-8 p. 142: Schwartau notes that in one of his talks at a lecture on Information Warfare at a seminar on OSINT (which was organized by Steele) he was surrounded by a sizeable number of intelligence workers who wanted more information on Information Warfare, as they had never been exposed to the 'big picture' before, by policy.] , argues that both reports, while recent, still ignore his decades of advocacy for a proper national focus on OSINT from 1988 to date. He further argues that the Central Intelligence Agency has refused to take open source information seriously for decades, and shouldn't be charged with developing new capabilities that are totally outside its existing culture of secrecy.

Books Self-Published by Steele

* ON INTELLIGENCE: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World (AFCEA, 2000, Foreword by Senator David Boren (D-OK)) ISBN 0-9715661-0-0

* The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political (OSS, 2002, Foreword by Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS)) ISBN 0-9715661-1-9

* INFORMATION OPERATIONS: All Information, All Languages, All the Time (OSS, 2005, Foreword by Congressman Rob Simmons (R-CT-02)) ISBN 0-9715661-3-5
* THE SMART NATION ACT: Public Intelligence in the Public Interest (OSS, 11 September 2006, Foreword by Congressman Rob Simmons (R-CT-02) ISBN 0-9715661-3-2

* PEACEKEEPING INTELLIGENCE: Emerging Concepts for the Future (OSS, 2003, Foreword by Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, UK) Contributing editor with Ben de Jong and Wies Platje. ISBN 0-9715661-2-7

Film Appearances

* Steele is prominently featured in the 2007 documentary, .

ources and notes

External links

* [http://www.oss.net Open Source Solutions Inc.]
* [http://www.earth-intelligence.net Earth Intelligence Network]
* [http://www.echochamberproject.com/informationpeacekeeping A Summary of Steele's Views]
* [http://intellit.muskingum.edu/alpha_folder/S_folder/steeletoc.html Journal Publications]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/search?tb=art&qt=%22Robert+David+Steele%22 Articles published]
* [http://www.defcon.org/html/defcon-3/defcon-3.html Speaker biography at DEF CON III] Las Vegas 1995
* [http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/oss980501.htm Open Source Intelligence: Private Sector Capabilities to Support DoD Policy, Acquisitions, and Operations] May 5 1998
* [http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020311/viewpoint.html The New Craft of Intelligence - Making the Most of Open Private Sector Knowledge] 2002
* [http://www.dcmilitary.com/navy/seaservices/10_45/national_news/38163-1.html Draft legislation to create Open Source Agency posted] November 10, 2005
* [http://www.echochamberproject.com/steele Interview Audio: Robert David Steele, Open Source Intelligence Evangelist] Jan 25 2006
* [http://www.forbes.com/2006/04/15/open-source-intelligence_cx_rs_06slate_0418steele.html Forbes - Open Source Intelligence] April 18 2006
* [http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060422/nysa009.html OSS CEO Praises Mary McCarthy, Calls for Censure of DNI & DCI] April 22 2006
* [http://www.aspectx.com/press/aspectx12.html 911, Iraq, & Bin Laden: US’s $60 Billion Intelligence Failure] May 2 2006
* [http://www.sys-con.com/read/243968.htm Call for Open Source Intelligence Inputs to Wikipedia] July 5 2006