The Other Brother

This is a project for the Summer 2008, LI838: "Information Transfer and Government Documents" class for Emporia State University's School of Library and Information Management.
August 1

The Other Brother: Corporate Data Storage and Management by Lockheed Martin

“It may surprise you to know that, since the mid-1990s, Lockheed Martin has been the single largest IT provider to the federal government.” – Vance D. Coffman, Chairman and CEO, Lockheed Martin Corporation(1)

In 1949, George Orwell wrote a dystopian novel that has molded the vision of a surveillance state in the collective conscious of Western Civilization. A novel which featured a dictator called “Big Brother”.

Orwell’s vision was inspired by the disturbing developments he saw in Soviet Russia, and as such—was not explicitly corporate. However, as time has passed, we have witnessed the development of a very different type of surveillance state—one that is not specific to government, but with decidedly corporate elements. Freedom of Information and Intelligence law have regulated what data can be collected and aggregated on American citizens, and yet—today one wonders, do the same laws apply to corporate datasets? How fast is our data being outsourced? What agencies are handing this over and how quickly?

Lockheed Martin was formed in the mid-1990s as the result of a merger between the Lockheed Corporation and Martin Marietta. Today, it is the largest defense contractor in the United States, responsible for over $36 billion dollars in business.(2)

Using Lockheed Martin as an example of one company involved in this process, I will provide numerous instances where the line between public and private is blurred. I will provide resources for the interested researcher or concerned citizen to follow.

Libraries are one of the great defenders of privacy, reluctant to even share the usage data of patrons who opt-in. However, while library students debate the wisdom of allowing Google access to digitizing our collections, there is a seeming rush on the part of numerous federal agencies to hand over their data by the terabyte to a corporation normally associated with defense contracts.

1.            Coffman, V. (2003) Information Solutions for a New World Order. Executive Speeches. (17) 5: 11-14.

2.            “Defense News Top 100.” Defense News. Retrieved on 2008-07-25 at: http://www.defensenews.com/static/features/top100/charts/rank_2007.php?c=FEA&s=T1C

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DefenseLink News Article: DoD First to Transfer Digital Records to National Archives

Never to be outdone, the Department of Defense is also one of the first to transfer its electronic records to NARA.
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INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Challenges in Implementing an Electronic Records Archive

Statement of Linda Koontz, Director Information Management Issues before the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, and International Security, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
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U.S. Department of State Electronic Records Transfer to NARA

The State Department’s records will be some of the first records to be stored in the new ERA system.
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Successful Test for First Phase of National Archives Electronic Records Archives System - Dec. 13, 2007

Despite less than stellar reviews from the OMB, the White House released this press release celebrating the ERA program.
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ExpectMore.gov: National Archives and Records Administration: Electronic Records Services

ExpectMore.gov is a service of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and the federal agencies being assessed. It offers assessments of many federal programs, giving a rating based upon its performance.
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“ ERA is the National Archives and Records Administration’s strategic initiative to preserve and provide long-term access to uniquely valuable electronic records of the U.S. Government, and to transition government-wide management of the lifecycle of all records into the realm of e-government. The National Archives Electronic Records Archives (ERA
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National Archives Announces Completion of Major ERA Milestone

This is announcement that the National Archives’ new Electronic Records Archives system (built by Lockheed Martin) had almost reached a readiness point to begin recieving information from federal agencies.
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Confidentiality, Privacy & Security Workgroup: June 2007 Meeting Materials

This subgroup of the American Health Information Community (AHIC), an advisory committee to the Department of Health and Human Services, accepted testimony from potential contractors looking to be involved in building a national electronic health records system.

In this Lockheed Martin were not awarded a contract to build such a system, but it is interesting to see their responses to privacy concerns as well as the extensive list of project they already responsible for on the bottom of the page— including Veteren’s medical records, the Department of Defense Theater Medical Information Program (TMIP), Medicare and Medicaid IT infrastructure, etc.
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Interior Awards Lockheed Martin Pilot Contract For Automated Law Enforcement Reporting System

“IMARS will allow all of our law enforcement officers, including field personnel, to collect, store, analyze and share information across department, federal, state and local levels,” said Larry Parkinson, Interior’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Law Enforcement and Security. “The system will provide the comprehensive data that is needed to identify problems, recognize trends, prioritize threats, and allocate resources.”