Of all the groups of people one would expect to adopt social networking, the new Internet paradigm in which individuals publish personal information, assemble public contact lists and try to attract the attention of past acquaintances, military intelligence personnel would be one of the last.

But that has not stopped intelligence agencies in the US developing ‘A-Space’, a social network for spies modeled on popular consumer networks Myspace and Facebook. The Director of National Intelligence will unveil the network in December.

Thomas Fingar, the deputy director of national intelligence for analysis, told the Financial Times that the site will help to break down information and knowledge silos in the various departments, and help experts to collaborate in their work against international terrorism.

“Burying the same number of analysts in ever higher piles of hay would no more increase the number of needles,” he said of traditional attempts to foster collaboration in such large organisations.

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