To all our new and younger viewers welcome!  It’s time for another “what the heck is this EXCALIBUR” thing all about. Well, here are some more thoughts…

We have a national security system, military, and supporting entities (think-tanks, defense contractors, even universities) that evolved through decades of the Cold War.  In comparison to detecting and defeating terrorists, the challenge of understanding the Soviet Union was simple.  We used satellites, spies, and tons of PhD’s and defense consultants and they analyzed, and studied, and wrote books and papers.  The USSR collapsed under its own weight which was barely predicted by the legions of analysts.  In  the 90’s, a new threat emerged and was only identified and understood by a handful of people in the CIA, FBI, the military, and a very few journalists. This threat called themselves “the base” (Al Qaeda) and declared war on our country and Western civilization, even conducting a decades long campaign of attacks. All, while we were mesmerized with the breakup of the Soviet Union with an expected peace dividend.

Simultaneously, new and exciting means of communicating and collaborating were being created, many failed, more emerged.  The internet, powered by increasingly capable computers and software programs, was being used in ways almost as innovative, as say, your imagination.  Search engines like Google and Yahoo, online businesses like E-bay and Amazon, social networking like Myspace and Facebook, and millions upon millions of blogs empowered anyone with an idea and access to a computer.  Then one clear September day, 19 young Arab men with a religious zeal fueled by hate of the West, changed the world forever.  

Our nation responded with the people, weapons, and tools of intelligence that were in existence, while many began thinking about the need for change: dramatic, drastic, innovative, yet despite the realizations by many, the old systems, processes, and bureaucracy marches on.  EXCALIBUR is about embracing and leading change, it’s about a realization that the thinking that got us here won’t move us forward.  I’ve been trying to think up an analogy and the only one I can think of is that our defense process are all inside an English style fort, and out, running free, are the youth of our nation: communicating, interacting, living, while the “grown-ups” (existing structures) watch from afar and do not understand that they are becoming obsolescent.

If you are reading this and are 30 years old or more, it’s not too late to learn, adapt, overcome.  If you are less than 30, we need you to start thinking about national security. This doesn’t mean you have to join the Marines and go to Iraq, it doesn’t mean you have to attend West Point and get a commission; it doesn’t mean you have to become an analyst with the CIA.  If you choose to join and serve, good for you.  But your fresh ideas, your innovative way of thinking, your fearless resolve when dealing with the every day crap, can be used in other ways.

The plan is to get the government and industry to give us their hardest challenges, their most difficult problems, and let people work these collaboratively, using the latest in technology.  Eventually, there will be a facility that will be a cross between ESPN’s broadcast facility, the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, and the Google campus.  We will work steady state problems as well as crisis as they occur.  The intent is for both paid personnel and unpaid interns and volunteers, many virtually on the web, with a network  worldwide.  We will leverage innovations as they happen and hopefully, will help lead the way in forcing change.

The above image courtesy of futurist John Kao, a major inspiration for this. 

People have told me this will fail and I will go broke.  Perhaps, but that would be OK.  Today, we have 160,000 uniformed men and women serving in Iraq, 25,000 serving in Afghanistan, troops in the Philippines, standing the watch in South Korea, on ships at sea, in airplanes 24/7.  These uniformed people are backed by intelligence and other security pros, couple with defense contractors, many putting their lives on the line, thosands have lost their lives, tens of thousands losing a limb or being seriously wounded. These people have “skin in the game” literally.  The least I can do is to try to establish something innovative, I’m risking my money, and these folks are risking their lives.

America needs its young folks engaged.  I’m asking now, today, if you will consider signing up and volunteering to help.  We’ve got our first three interns, we are branching out to Myspace and Facebook, and those are just the beginning.  We are putting together a website presence and a process, which can quickly expand upon receiving the first contract.  It will then be followed by the facility.  Sorry for this being so long, there’s been so many college folks visiting since the Facebook page went up, I wanted to give you my vision, not a lecture.  

To help, we want you to join here.

Thanks for your time….