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2nd annual U.S. AFRICOM / U.S. EUCOM Social Media Summit

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Photo by: U.S. Africa Command 

RAF MOLESWORTH, United Kingdom – Dozens of intelligence professionals from around the world took part in the 2nd annual U.S. Africa Command/U.S. European Command Social Media Summit to gather ideas and best practices on the emerging discipline.

The event was held at the NATO Fusion Intelligence Center at RAF Molesworth, United Kingdom June 12-14.

The Summit was designed to bring together social media experts and practitioners from as a diverse group as possible to have an open dialogue with representatives from the U.S. Intelligence Community, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of State, and the New York Police Department. Representatives from several NATO partners including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Latvia, and Lithuania also attended.

The summit focused on the use of Publicly Available Information (PAI), specifically social media, as an emerging discipline and how the intelligence communities can work together on best practices and analyzing information. Because there is no career path to field train PAI personnel, most organizations develop their own tradecraft. This summit was designed to bring together people from different backgrounds to share their experiences, build relationships, and learn from each other.

“Our goal was to expose the audience to new perspectives enabling those who leverage PAI to see possibilities for the future on how they do research,” said Liz Sydnor, U.S. European Command.

During the summit, participants took part in exercises designed to foster an open dialogue that allowed analysts to learn from each other.

“I spent time with all five groups [participating in the exercise] and was impressed with the amount of interaction and sharing of ideas between strangers” said Bill Reynolds, U.S. Africa Command.

Organizers hope for even more foreign participation next year and hope to have all attending organizations provide presentations.