Developing a knowledge system for information operations

Abstract

In this paper we describe a research project to develop an optimal information retrieval system in an Information Operations domain. Information Operations is the application and management of information to gain an advantage over an opponent and to defend one’s own interests. Corporations, governments, and military forces are facing increasing exposure to strategic information-based actions. Most national defence and security organisations regard Information Operations as both a defensive and offensive tool, and some commercial institutions are also starting to recognise the value of Information Operations. An optimal information retrieval system should have the capability to extract relevant and reasonably complete information from different electronic data sources which should decrease information overload. Information should be classified in a way such that it can be searched and extracted effectively. The authors of this paper have completed an initial phase in the investigation and design of a knowledge system that can be used to extract relevant and complete knowledge for the planning and execution of Information Operations. During this initial phase of the project, we performed a needs analysis and problem analysis and our main finding is the recommendation of the use of logicbased ontologies: it has the advantage of an unambiguous semantics, facilitates intelligent search, provides an optimal trade-off between expressivity and complexity, and yields optimal recall of information. The risk of adopting this technology is its status as an emerging technology and therefore we include recommendations for the development of a prototype system.