Mỗi mùa hè trong ba năm qua, các nhóm đa dạng của các chuyên gia khu vực chính phủ và tư nhân đã tập hợp tại các địa điểm hẻo lánh và phân loại để giải quyết một số thách thức khó khăn nhất của tình báo Mỹ. Các chuyên gia này chi tiêu một tháng kiểm tra các vấn đề quan trọng thông qua các vấn đề hàng năm mùa hè cứng | 44 SHARP minds tackle tough problems Each summer for the past three years diverse groups of government and private sector experts have gathered in secluded and classified locations to tackle some of America s most difficult intelligence challenges. These experts spend a month together examining critical issues through the annual Summer Hard Problem SHARP program sponsored by the federal . Office of the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis. This year the SHARP program focused on two issues potential intelligence uses for computer-based virtual worlds such as Second Life and how to slow the worldwide growth of ex tremism. These intensive four-week programs are designed to reduce groupthink within the notoriously insular intelligence community by fostering interaction between government officials and outside experts. The extremism session for instance brought together authorities on anthropology social psychology insurgency and Islamic thought. The SHARP program s goal is to identify novel approaches and forge relationships that lead to ongoing collaboration on vital issues of national security. The program is patterned after a long-running and highly successful project by the National Security Agency which enlists top mathematicians to work on sophisticated encryption issues. in various ways in the business world. Pioneering companies such as Google and 3M allow their employees to spend close to 20 percent of their time developing their own business ideas. 3M made one of its big breakthroughs Post-it notes thanks to an intrapreneur who wanted something to mark pages in his hymn book. But intrapreneuring isn t confined to the private sector. When budget cuts in the 1990s threatened administrative functions at the . Forest Service the agency created selfsupporting business units that deliver a wide range of services to forest managers. Now internal Forest Service intraprises handle tasks like estimating lumber yields and measuring the .
