Having worked as an intelligence analyst for a few years at the Department of Defense, I try to dispel the notion that the job requires a special skillset. It doesn't. It is simply research, and the job is little different from any other research-based position: you gather observations, think about them, and write a report. Nothing special there. Analysts do have access to secrets, but even that doesn't completely set them apart from others: some intelligence scholars believe that the majority of strategic decisions can be made with 100% public information.

So why, then, can't the public do intelligence analysis? I've toyed with the idea in my head for a while, but it always seemed to big an undertaking for the virtual world. It requires lots of situational awareness, motivation and collaboration that is hard to find outside a tight organization.

I've been proven wrong. This morning's Wall Street Journal highlights a public effort to map the military, civil, and cultural infrastructure of North Korea, which is not too different from my job at DoD. In just two years, this Google Earth subcommunity has mapped what looks to be thousands of locations, including mass grave sites, gulags, and suspected nuclear facilities. (You can download the Google Earth KML file here.) With a potential manpower far greater than the CIA, these hobbyists are on their way to making real discoveries in advance of their professional counterparts.