It seems like everyone wants to get into the social networking game these days, even spies. The Director of National Intelligence and the United States government are now encouraging these covert operatives to do start collaborating and sharing information using a new secure social network called "A-Space" (A stands for Analyst). The site is modeled after MySpace and Facebook and will open in December for U.S. spies and covert operatives across 16 some intelligence agencies to share information with each other. The effort is spearheaded by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or DNI, a post created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, to coordinate foreign and domestic security and promote collaboration among those 16 intelligence groups. To respect the concerns of operatives undercover and other security-leery analysts, A-Space will be voluntary.

Mike Wertheimer, the senior DNI official for analytic transformation and technology, said A-Space is one of the fruits of labor of a security agency that is trying to change the way information is shared after the failure to foresee and prevent the 9/11 attacks. A-Space will be used to help intelligence specialists gather and share more information across the siloed and firewalled fortresses that comprise the security industry's IT infrastructure.

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