How a simple student project became a prototype for modern intelligence analysis
Back in the early 90s, long before the words “big data” or “AI-assisted forensics” meant anything, I found myself building what I thought was a simple little database for a friend doing her Masters in Education. Nothing dramatic, nothing earth-shaking. The brief was straightforward; create a place where her students could enter:
Name
Event
Date and time
Place
That was it. Four fields. A cup of coffee, and a few evenings later… done.
Then the unexpected happened.
As the students started entering hundreds of records, I started running queries just to see what I could see. And suddenly this “simple” database turned into something completely different. The data began revealing patterns; not the kind you consciously look for, but the kind that emerge when enough information settles into the right structure.
If you anchored a name like Churchill or Hitler, you’d get a chronological diary of movements over six years. Anchor a place and time, and you’d see exactly who was there. And then the strangest thing happened. You’d find records where major historical figures ended up in the same city at the same time… even though no public histories recorded these meetings.
It wasn’t proof of conspiracy, of course; it was proof of something more interesting; cross-referencing reality exposes shadows in the official narrative.
And I remember thinking at the time; hang on, this is powerful. This is exactly how you’d track the truth in law enforcement, intelligence, journalism, anything really.
If you build a system around time, place, person and object, the truth eventually has nowhere to hide.
Decades later, when I learned how modern intelligence systems like Palantir, Analyst’s Notebook, and the AFP’s national platforms actually work, I nearly fell off my chair.
I had built a tiny prototype of the same logic without even realising it.
I didn’t know the term entity–relationship knowledge graph back then; I just knew that once you align events in time and space, the world becomes transparent. Lies fall apart. Missing data becomes obvious. People who were “never there” suddenly appear in the margins.
Looking back, it’s funny. I wasn’t trying to reinvent intelligence analysis. I just wanted to help a friend with her Masters.
But the lesson stuck with me for life.
If you organise information the right way, the universe tells the truth on your behalf.
And that idea has followed me into everything I’ve done since.