Module 12 Assignment

By: Robbie Miller

For this assignment I have decided to do an evaluation of our nation’s CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY which is most often referred to simply as the “C.I.A.”

The URL to access their website ishttps://www.cia.gov/index.html

Looking at this website I noted that there was a search box located in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Compared to other databases used, I found that this one is not very sophisticated and only allows for very limited searching parameters which is based solely on the users input of terms.

I decided to do a search of Adolf Hitler. I typed his name into the search engine, and the results revealed 47 documents. From this results screen I noted that there were a handful of limiters and options that were available to apply to this search. Those options included a drop down list to categorize the documents, as well as an option to sort the material by either date or relevance.

Concept and Understanding

After thoroughly looking at this website, what I gather from it is that it serves as an informational hub and point of access for those people who are interested in learning about what the CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY does whether it be their mission, their history, their employment opportunities, the branches within the agency, or general and historic news about the CIA. As the agency works primarily in the mission of foreign intelligence and foreign counter-intelligence, most of the business they conducted is done in secrecy and the information they are collecting is not immediately made privy to the general public. The website does provide documentation and sources on some topics which the federal government has de-classified. As far as providing resource information, it is my understanding that the websites concept is to provide historic documentation about past events which no longer serve as a threat to the United States.

Opinion on the Usefulness of this .gov site

Like any other website, I feel that this one could provide useful but it all depends on what type of information is being sought or the type of report being written. If someone was writing a historical report on the CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY the information and website would be perfect, but as far as finding strategic plans or what the United States government is doing or even thinks happened to the Malaysian Airlines flight that disappeared it will not be an immediately helpful website. I do not think this is the case for every .gov site as there are many other websites out there which it is their main objective to get free information out to the public, but unfortunately this website is not one of them.