| Given the importance of this area, and the growing need for better technology, it is not surprising that the National Academies, in the report I mentioned earlier, have identified data mining technologies as an urgent research opportunity. The Academies are not alone in that assessment. Research programs in this area have been created by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA), the Intelligence Technology Innovation Center (ITIC), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). It's also important to put credit where credit is due. The early stages of DARPA's program began in 1998, and ARDA began planning its program at least as early as 2000. These programs were not created in response to September 11th, but because of a growing awareness that new technologies were needed to keep pace with the realities of the information age. The pace of these programs certainly changed in late 2001, but the basic needs did not.
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