Message from the DON CIO.

Our nation has set forth strategies to protect our homeland and the maritime domain that surrounds it. A key facet of these strategies is building partnerships. The Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard have partnered together to build our 21st century seapower.

Partnerships are being built across federal agencies and with state, local and tribal entities. Partnerships also expand globally with our NATO allies and other international partners.

Expanding cooperative relationships and developing partnerships with other nations contributes to the security and stability of the maritime domain for the benefit of all. All of these partnerships rely on the ability to share information.

In the Department of the Navy, our efforts are primarily focused on the maritime domain. Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) is defined as "effective knowledge of all activities associated with the global maritime environment that could impact the security, safety, economy, or environment of the United States." Information sharing is a foundational tenet of MDA.

Recent piracy events challenge international security and impact the global economy. Combating these events has brought about a new requirement to interact and share information with a diverse set of partners outside our firewalls on a non-classified enclave. This has brought a new perspective and new challenges.

Truly successful information sharing requires a shift in the way we do business. The first and perhaps most difficult challenge is changing culture. We must move away from the "isolated need to know" and move to the "trusted need to share." As the Web 2.0 generation continues to pervade our workforce with their ingrained practice of constant collaboration and openness, this will also help shift our government culture toward one that readily fosters and benefits from information sharing.

A second challenge is the fact that existing information sharing policies are not always adequate. In addition to following all civil liberty, regulatory and legal guidelines, before we share our information, we must be ever vigilant about securing sensitive data and sharing that data in a secure environment. But we must also develop reliable and repeatable governance and risk management processes that will foster information sharing.