A host of software tools to track information about foreign groups in sources ranging from news sources to blogs to online video libraries has been developed at the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies in the United States.
The software developed by UNIMACS Director V S Subrahmanian and his colleagues at the university can almost instantly search the entire Internet for information/links for a terrorist suspect or other particular person/group of interest.
"Currently we are able to find the most probable sets of actions a group could take when there are up to 10 to the power of 27 (i.e. 10 with 27 zeros after it) possible sets of actions the group can take," Subrahmanian said, adding, "Compare this with the total number of atoms on earth, which is about 10 to the power of 50."
Subrahmanian notes that in 2001, US commanders probably knew where Bin Laden was, but were unable to prevent his escape in part because inadequate cultural knowledge barred troops on the ground from successfully negotiating with local tribesmen.
Such failures can be prevented if decision makers have access to all pertinent data and to accurate models of the behaviours of the relevant groups, he said.
A piece by Subrahmanian in the September 14 issue of the journal Science looks at the new computer models and databases that can help policymakers or military planners predict the behaviour of political, economic, and social groups, predictions that can be critical for success, AScribe, The Public Interest Newswire has said in a release.
