#82 John DeRosa and Alex del Castillo on Measuring Effectiveness of Operations in the Information Environment

The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association.

During this episode, Alex del Castillo of Zignal Labs and John De Rosa discuss applied social science related to measuring effectiveness of operations in the information environment. Our wide-ranging conversation touches upon helping decision-makers visualize the information environment, cloud computing, nurturing an innovation culture, and in-demand near-term future capabilities. John and Alex discuss how measuring IO effectiveness includes several sub-components such as horizonal and vertical contextual understanding of the whole information environment, establishing agnostic baselines, filtering and searching, target audience definition, and measuring based upon area targets instead of point targets. The national security and commercial marketplaces seem to be blending and asking for predictive and prescriptive analytics, narrative intelligence, sandbox information environments, geospatial, and meme analysis.

Resources:

• Cognitive Crucible Podcast Episodes Mentioned
  • #69 Venhaus on ARLIS & the Cognitive Security Proving Ground
• Narrativized Strategic Choice by John DeRosa
• Wargaming Contest Narratives by John DeRosa and Arnel David

Link to full show notes and resources

https://information-professionals.org/episode/cognitive-crucible-episode-82

Guest Bios: 

As Zignal's Chief Revenue Officer, Alex del Castillo leads all revenue generation processes while ensuring accountability and alignment with product development, marketing, and customer success. A former Chicago prosecuting attorney, enlisted Marine turned naval officer, and Booz Allen Hamilton consultant to U.S. Special Operations Forces, he brings more than 20 years of experience across multiple critical disciplines to Zignal Labs.

John DeRosa has served over twenty years as a soldier, officer, and civilian in the U.S. Department of Defense. Concurrently, he is an Adjunct Professor Government and Politics at the University of Maryland Global Campus. He has a Ph.D. and MSc from the Carter School of Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, a MSc in National Security Strategy from the National War College, a MA in National Security Studies, and a BA in Economics from California State University, San Bernardino. His book Narrativized Strategic Choice was published in 2020.

About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.

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