# Story The [**Defense Entrepreneurs Forum**](https://www.def.org) (DEF) launched the **Project on Innovation in National Security** (PINS) in 2022 to help address some of the problems we saw in the national security community: 1. **Understanding the innovation ecosystem**, including all of its `Organizations`, `Groups`, `Activities`, `Artifacts`, and `Individuals`. 2. **Data literacy and related data applications**, such as automation and various forms of artificial intelligence. 3. **Supporting a learning mindset** through iterative and exploratory approaches that encourage experimentation and new ideas. > *Innovation is such a buzzword that using it without context or purpose can actually be more harmful than helpful.* With an increase in both resourcing for and evaluation of innovation efforts in defense, intelligence, and related national security fields, we believe this understanding is paramount to improving outcomes. Because our tagline is to inspire, connect, and empower, we started asking ourselves the question "*How might we?*" about this observed challenge and realized one potential starting point was staring us right in the face: [a network graph created in 2018](https://kumu.io/aflazo/def-innovation-ecosystem-map#def-ecosystem-map) by several of our community members. Thus was born this project, a data set and associated applications **designed to help people explore, understand, and build a culture of innovation** in national security through individual action. **Most of this project is free and open-source data** in keeping with the values of our community - it is available for reuse and remixing under the conditions of our [License](/about/support/license.md). We hope that you are as interested in what this project can contribute as we are and welcome your feedback and ideas! Check out the [Workflow](/workflow/workflow-overview.md) section to find out ways to get involved and feel free to follow us and our [Partners](/about/support/partners.md) on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/defenseentrepreneurs/), [Twitter](https://www.twitter.com/defcommunity), [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/defenseentrepreneurs), and more! --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.natsec.io/about/story.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.