Growing Open Content Through Analytic Outreach

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is partnering with non-profit groups to create public-facing, open source intelligence on various strategic, economic, and humanitarian intelligence topics that tend to be under-reported within in-depth or long-form formats. This open source content is created for three purposes: (1) citation and usage for internal purposes, (2) strengthening analytic outreach, and (3) growing public trust by increasing transparency around a shared interest in various intelligence topics that are fit for public collaboration. The Tearline Project aligns with Intelligence Community Directive 205 to expand analytic outreach with outside groups to grow alternative ideas and new knowledge bases. The NGA Tearline Project delivers real-world analytic outreach content transparently. For this work, the NGA Tearline Project received the IC Transparency Team of the Year Award from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the OSINT Unit of the Year Award from the OSINT Foundation.

NGA's partners maintain full editorial independence. NGA helps review how our partners create content not what they create in order to grow authoritative content. Tearline's content syndicates to several .gov and .mil channels so partners can reach new audiences. This concept builds on the precedent of the CIA World Factbook but pushes it beyond reference material to include original research.

A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) or manuscript submission agreement between NGA and our partners sets the tone and culture of the collaboration. Here's a sample of the terms and conditions of a data access and methodology review arrangement:

• The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and Partner X have entered into a data access agreement. NGA will extend access to commercial and unclassified geospatial data to Partner X in return for Partner X's expertise in documenting Y. This data access agreement will increase the frequency and granularity of public reporting on topic Y.
• NGA does not exercise editorial control over Partner X's content, analytic conclusions, or prescriptions. NGA supplies data and reviews Partner X's methodologies based on NGA's long experience with geospatial analysis.
• For example, independent fact-checking is a methodology used in journalism to reduce errors not to control storylines. In software development, a two-person code review prior to merging the code mitigates developers from "grading their own homework" not to control output. In the context of NGA's various partnerships, NGA will review Partner X's use of various structured analytic techniques such as looking for biases favoring centralized direction versus random chance to reduce errors not to control storylines.

Benefits of Tearline Participation Video Explainer

Notice to Students

Publishing your thesis, capstone work, or special projects in Tearline is a good way to earn publication credit to strengthen your resume, LinkedIn profile, and overall brand. See the citation sample below. If interested in pursuing publication credit in Tearline, please reach out via the email listed at the bottom of this page.

Chris Johnson. (2023). Russia's Arctic Delimma: Permafrost Thaw Threatens Russia's Ambitions. Tearline. Retrieved from https://www.tearline.mil

Records Management

Using Tearline (government-controlled system) as the center of partner collaboration helps the government with records management, version control, tracking the outgoing commercial imagery, and syndication to other government platforms. After the first citation in Tearline, our partners are free to re-purpose the NGA-funded imagery and collaborative content to their web properties with attribution of our partnership and a link back to the original imagery and content (see RAND example of re-purposing with attribution). The report locked at the .mil link covers the extent of the arrangement. Any other imagery, content, or commentary added after the re-purposing process is clearly delineated.

Government Syndication Reach and Feedback

Tearline integrates with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's intelligence.gov under the Public's Daily Brief and NGA's homepage under the Partners tab. NGA passes unclassified feedback to our partners regarding how the collaborative content was used within NGA and the IC in order to demonstrate how it reaches new audiences.

Social Media Promotion

NGA will make video summaries for social media promotion after each Tearline report is published. NGA has hundreds of thousands of followers throughout the major social media platforms. These social media posts drive substantial traffic and attention to each new Tearline report. See an example of the summary video below and sample posts from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Release Tempo

High-quality original content takes time to create. Tearline is not a situational awareness platform or news aggregator. Several in-depth or long-form reports will be published quarterly.

Integration

You can integrate Tearline content into your services by coding against the API.

API Reference

https://www.tearline.mil/api-reference/

Tearline Apps

The web browser version responds well on any modern smartphone or tablet. Native apps are also available in the Apple Store and Google Play. The functionality of the app is pared down slightly from the web version. Search for "Tearline" in the Apple Store or Google Play.

Tearline Project Help

If you have any questions or you would like to help produce open content, please reach out. It is best to propose a topic you are passionate about in the initial email to start the discussions on topic agreement.

tearline@nga.mil