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For a long time, when the question has been raised online “Where is the Air Force blogosphere?”, the answer has been associated with the sound of crickets. Today while reading an excellent discussion put forth by George Smiley at In From the Cold, a spook blog many have long considered a lone Air Force blog lost in the wilderness online, George highlighted two interesting discussions.
Apparently back in December, Global Nerdy and Web Ink Now happened across a UFO in the blogosphere. Using a highly classified radar system that can apparently track stealth online, they have made positive identification… it’s the Air Force! David Meerman Scott at Web Ink Now captures a summery of what’s going on.
Capt. Faggard and his Air Force Emerging Technology team is responsible for developing strategy, policy and plans for an ever-changing communication landscape for communicators worldwide. What was most interesting is that with Capt. Faggard leading the way, the Air Force employs 330,000 communicators! Their mission is to use current and developing Web 2.0 applications as a way to actively engage conversations between Airmen and the general public. Yes, that’s right, the goal of the program is that every single Airman is an on-line communicator.
Global Nerdy has a very interesting PDF flow chart available online called Air Force Web Posting Response Assessment V.2. If you haven’t seen it, it is worth a look. I wish Capt. Faggard and his team success, because it looks like they have an interesting training model of a service wide information campaign infrastructure in development. I would also encourage Captain Faggard to carefully consider the advice and criticism offered by George Smiley.
While the service’s move into social media is commendable, the USAF remains somewhat ambivalent towards the blogosphere, and participation by its personnel. Less than a year ago, the Air Force blocked access to virtually any independent site with “blog” in its web address. That means that USAF members can’t access most military or defense blogs–including this one–from their computers at work.
According to the Air Force, the ban isn’t aimed at specific blogs. When the service switched to BlueCoat web filtering in early 2008, the new software blocked almost anything that contained blog as part of its URL. The system is flexible, allowing network monitors to override restrictions imposed by the software. But, at last report, the USAF’s general restrictions on workplace blog access remained in place.
Workplace standards for internet access are important to every organization, and given the complete absence of a truly networked Air Force blogosphere (at least that I am aware of), I can see why the Air Force has taken an ambivalent approach towards blogs. As a blog network emerges with consistent analysis and discussion of professional Air Force topics, I think we will see the Air Force adjust policy accordingly.
And that last point is key. All of the military services have taken a unique approach to Web 2.0 technologies, including blogging, but there are a lot of factors that go into why each approach is different. The reason we see so much activity in the Coast Guard and Air Force public affairs offices towards Web 2.0 is because unlike the Army and Navy, the Coast Guard has a relatively small blogosphere right now and the Air Force blogosphere is non-existent. Those services have to develop their own networks, where organizations like CHINFO don’t, they have a large number of Navy bloggers already doing the work of getting accurate information with integrity out to the masses, including via the USNI blog.
Why should the Army reinvent the wheel? The Small Wars Journal already covers both sides of the major ground forces strategic debates with integrity, and both services also enjoy the advantage of thousands of veterans who blog in a variety of aspects of interest.
However, with independent operators handling the role of Web 2.0 communications in the information space for Army and Navy, those services face an entirely different set of challenges for the Public Affairs Offices in dealing with Web 2.0. It will be very interesting to see looking back in a decade which model paid the most dividends for the services, or if it even mattered. Does having the Public Affairs Offices engaged directly in the Web 2.0 process have benefits? Does it have disadvantages yet unforeseen? Does having independent operators doing that work for the Public Affairs Offices in the Web 2.0 space add significant value to the work, or less value?
It may not even matter. While a lot of people suggest the Information Age is old hat and the services are moving too slow in the Web 2.0 space, I would note that we are still in the very early stages of the communication phase of the Information Age. During this communication phase a rapid evolution of social networking tools is taking place, and it may not be fiscally responsible for any service to invest too much in any single technology yet. From 2001 to 2009 the tools available to the services have literally evolved from IRC coordination of two military campaigns (very interesting read PDF format) to the potential of a couple of BloggingHeads holding a conversation about the NOC 09 release sharing what impresses and what doesn’t.
In 2000, I was very comfortable with my limited action pay-by-the-minute cell phone, but less than a decade later I don’t know how I’d get through the day without checking my email and surfing the internet on my Blackberry. In 2015, when you hit the link on my blog to call me directly on my pocket video phone, we talk face to face for 20 minutes, and I turn around and call my blog to upload new content as a result of that conversation, I’d wager the way the content is distributed from the blog is different than today too.
Image created by me
8 Responses to “Web 2.0 Movements in the Military Services”
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I’m in total agreement that we’ve really just started moving forward in the communication phase of the information age. While I feel there is a marginal amount of maturity the cell phone analogy couldn’t be better placed and more accurate.
Financial investment into the social channels I think could be started on limited/controlled budgets that allow for “testing the waters” and give the ability to turn quickly without loosing huge investment dollars. Not to mention that usability comes from use and the expansion of a concept or innovation. So without going down this road it’ll be tough to really refine and define how Service wants to utilize the social channels.
FYI – I loved your image it actually made me laugh out loud.
January 7th, 2009 at 1:07 pmMichael,
I note that each service has different objectives with social media as well, in other words, in their own way each is connecting, but none have developed a unified strategy. I often argue in xGW discussions that very few public or private Web 2.0 initiatives in reality have fully developed Web 2.0 information strategies, which is why even those considered leaders in Web 2.0 today continue to evolve regularly.
I’ll use the example of the Coast Guard. They are teaching their folks how to engage the Web 2.0 space while also leveraging the tools. At its core, some of the investment by the Coast Guard is motivational in nature, intended to promote use of Web 2.0 from its organization.
But does the Navy need to make the same investment? Does the Army? I don’t think so, I think the existing blog communities in both the Army and Navy already act as a motivation for others. Those services can conserve funding projects towards those ends and instead look into Web 2.0 capabilities for other purposes.
January 7th, 2009 at 2:20 pmGood write up. I too have been very impressed with what Captain Faggard has done. Like George Smiley said, it’s an abrupt course change, if not a full 180. Something I thought that was particularly interesting is some of the original reporting/posting that has been done by the USAF involvement in the new media. To my knowledge this hasn’t been done much, if at all, by the other services “official” involvement in new media. By “original” I mean not simply parroting stuff that has already been released via official PA channels (.mil stuff, basically). There were three examples that I pointed out over at In From the Cold. First are two posts that were put up at AF Live written by a TSgt combat photographer who survived a major bombing attack in Sadr City while attending a meeting with local officials (six coalition personnel were KIA). To my knowledge this was not disseminated through official PA channels and it is really quite a read.
Next is a series of posts over at the PACAF blog (which is also fairly good) written by a flight surgeon who was attached to Operation Deep Freeze. Again, to my knowledge these were not disseminated through official PA channels. It provided a first hand perspective into one of the more unique missions performed by the USAF.
Finally, the USAF has a YouTube channel (appropriately titled AF Blue Tube). What stood out to me about it was the mix of material they had. While there is the usual more canned stuff put together by the PA establishment, there was also more candid videos taken on the fly of people doing their jobs, such as this video of fast-roping out of a CV-22. Most interesting was this video of a mock commendation given to an airman for going above and beyond the call of duty by sacrificing his foot to save another airman’s TV. I think we can look back at the Reagan “Don’t Impress Me Much” flap and realize that the chances of such a video getting disseminated through a channel with official links to the Navy would be slim to none.
January 7th, 2009 at 4:39 pmBad link on the CV-22 fast-roping…here it is.
January 7th, 2009 at 4:40 pmGreat post! I work in Army public affairs, specifically with online and social media, and it’s definitely an exciting time for Government 2.0! I’ve been very excited to see the progress being made in the other services – including this blog! When it comes to blogging, in particular, our major means of outreach has been through blogger’s roundtables. DoD began the blogger’s roundtable program several years ago, and since the spring the Army has engaged with hundreds of bloggers. Even the Secretary of the Army has conducted three blogger’s roundtable interviews. Thus far, our best means of communicating our story has been through the hundreds of Army Soldiers are already blogging. But look for that to change in the near-term as we begin looking into blogging on our own. I think reaching out to the existing bloggers will always take priority, but to have a service voice in the blogosphere sends a strong and needed message that blogging is supported.
Key issues will still be policy and the institutional aversion to change. Social and emerging media represent a major culture shift for the military. I think it’s one our senior leaders are willing to accept, but it will take time to get a bureacracy as large as the U.S. military to embrace such a monumental shift. We’ve really been blessed to have supportive leadership in Army Public Affairs, and have had great luck in engaging on You Tube, Flickr and even Twitter (follow @USArmy and @LindyKyzer). Now if we could only open the flood gates to get open access to those sites on all government computers – then we’d have made real progress.
January 8th, 2009 at 8:17 amThanks for the post and for helping us share the story of our Airmen. We’re committed to sharing their stories openly. It will take time as I’m sure everyone understands. We’ve been slow at adopting this, however we feel that with the right education and backing, blogs become just like any other communication medium — one which should be embraced in order to share our story.
Know that men and women from the services meet on a monthly basis to discuss details, strategy and tactics about communicating online. We’re committed to our fellow warfighters and we’re going to share their stories with all. Thank you.
January 9th, 2009 at 8:59 pm[...] Within the Department of Defense, key military leaders including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, General David Petraeus, and his adviser David Kilcullen have focused American military strategy towards counterinsurgency and favor the use of “soft power”. Across the military we see key military leaders stepping up to the plate and embracing the social web. In an earlier post we highlighted the “Leadership By Example” mentality of US Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen who has boldly spread the use of social media across his command. Similarly, Admiral Stavridis, commander of SOUTHCOM and his counter-part at AFRICOM, General Ward, have been using the internet to engage audiences. In fact, all across the military we are starting to see military commands embrace social media. [...]
April 5th, 2009 at 3:21 am[...] reading here: Web 2.0 Movements in the Military Services | USNI Blog few-public, often-argue, [...]
April 9th, 2010 at 1:40 pm