Spook developer speaks! An interview with Matthew Burton

“I had a chance to talk with Matthew Burton, the former
intelligence analyst turned open source cause celebre who just
launched a tool that helps frame and understand arguments with
imperfect evidence. It’s based on method called Analysis of
Competing Hypotheses (ACH), which has been around for quite some
time. Matthew and his friend Josh Knowles, though, have a tool that
allows the ACH method to be used by multiple participants
simultaneously. It’s fascinating stuff, so I’m grateful that he
took the time to talk with me.

“On a personal note: I’m delighted to see that Matthew is a
fellow emdash enthusiast, as you’ll see below.

“First, tell me a little about ACH and how you first became
interested in the method.

“In the fall of 2005, Dick Heuer, the creator of ACH, contacted
me after reading an article I’d written for Studies in
Intelligence. The article was about how Intelink could benefit by
being more like the Web. Dick had been wanting for some time to
build a Web-based, multi-user tool for ACH, so he asked me to build
it. I spent the following summer at DS&T, interviewing ACH
practitioners and trainers.”

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