Posted on 04/18/2009 5:15:43 PM PDT by Cindy
(United States Army) This week the Army not only launched an official blog portal, but also an Army fan page on Facebook.
(Excerpt) Read more at milblogging.com ...
http://milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry090417-190133
“Trying to Grow Your Military Blog? You’re a Twit if you don’t use Twitter”
Friday, April 17, 2009, 07:01 PM
SNIPPET: “I’ve got news for you: if you run a military blog or any type of military website with the goal of getting more traffic or monetizing it, you need to be on Twitter. I particularly didn’t know the first thing about Twitter a year ago when I was in Iraq. Even at the 2008 Milblog Conference when other military bloggers were tweeting, I still didn’t realize its potential. That said, in less than 2 months I’ve been able to grow my Twitter following to nearly 15,000 followers.
Oh yeah, that’s right, at first glance, thousands of my followers don’t appear to care about the military. So what?”
More opportunities for leaks.
Generally my first question would be: “How do I make money with Twitter?”
I haven’t bothered to research it yet, but I don’t get the Twitter thing. I lived with a pager 24/7 for far too long. Isn’t this like getting tons of pages in text form? If 15,000 people started contacting me 24/7, I would hunt them down and break their gizmo into a thousand pieces. ;>)
Forums, email and occasional text messages on my cell I can control on this end so it’s not an issue... but more than that might drive this hermit-in-the making completely nuts.
GO NAVY...beat Army.
Actually, wouldn’t the users of Twitter be called “Twits”?
Same here. I'll say this much. People put the most interesting things on Facebook/MySpace etc. I wonder how many people have lost job opportunities over their content. I know one, because after reading his stuff I declined to hire him.
blog:
QUOTE:
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/197357.php
April 21, 2009
Wordpress, YouTube Execs in Iraq. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Good News: Executives from Twitter, Google, YouTube, and Wordpress are “in Iraq to help country use new media.”
Bad News: Wordpress still most popular blogging platform and free hosting service for terrorists and their supporters. In fact, Wordpress is now the platform of choice for al Qaeda’s Somali affiliate, the al-Shabaab (no link on purpose).
And the Google owned YouTube continues to be a major distribution node for terrorist produced media.
Advice: How about cleaning up your own houses before lecturing Iraqis about how awesome technology is?
Also, given that much of the social networking, blogging, and YouTubing coming out of the Middle East is full of vile antisemetism, anti-Americanism, and pro-Islamist sentiment, why would we want to help them become more proficient at using these tools?
By Rusty at April 21, 2009 09:26 AM
Background link for post no. 9:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/21/iraq.twitter.technology
updated 1 hour, 36 minutes ago
“Twitter, WordPress execs in Iraq to help country use new media”
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
SNIPPET: “BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Mobile phone use is nearly universal in Iraq. However, the country is served by various phone networks, resulting in a “bit of comical” situation — many residents carry at least two phones from separate providers to ensure that they are always connected.
So said Raanan Bar-Cohen, one of nine technology executives who begin their third day in Iraq on Tuesday as part of a U.S. State Department-led trip on how the war-battered country can effectively use new media as it rebuilds.
Bar-Cohen represents Automattic, best known for the blog-publishing application WordPress.”
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=54596
U.S. Forces Afghanistan Launches Social Networking Pages
American Forces Press Service
KABUL, June 2, 2009 – The command overseeing U.S. operations in Afghanistan today announced the official launch of its social networking strategy with pages on three online sites.
The social networking pages are the first-ever effort by the military in Afghanistan to engage online audiences directly with news, videos, pictures and other information from Operation Enduring Freedom, military officials said.
In the two weeks since beta testing began, social networking has become a major focus of U.S. Forces Afghanistan’s communication efforts, rapidly delivering an unfiltered view of the war from troops on the ground and opening a two-way dialogue with people around the world interested in the Afghanistan mission, officials said.
Since testing began May 12, the USFOR-A Facebook page has drawn more than 4,700 fans, and more than 1,400 people and organizations have signed up to follow its “tweets” on Twitter. There was no active marketing of either site during the beta testing period.
Those who become Facebook fans or sign up to follow USFOR-A tweets will receive a firsthand look at reports, videos and images from troops on the ground, including products that are not available in the mainstream media, like exclusive video from Afghan special operations forces, officials said.
Video of a four-day operation last week to disrupt drug production and smuggling by insurgents was first featured on the command’s Facebook and YouTube sites. The operation led to the deaths of 64 militants and netted more than 100 tons of narcotics – the biggest bust in more than seven years of war in Afghanistan, officials said.
Importantly for the war effort, the pages have quickened the pace at which commanders can get information to the public, allowing them to preempt extremist propaganda. The Taliban regularly make false claims of military victories to the Afghan press, which more often quotes insurgent groups than western spokespeople, officials said.
While U.S. Forces Afghanistan’s social networking activities aren’t focused on countering insurgent claims in the Afghan press, public affairs personnel said they hope the sites help strip militants of their attempt to influence the international press.
(From a U.S. Forces Afghanistan news release.)
Related Sites:
U.S. Forces Afghanistan
U.S. Forces Afghanistan on Twitter
U.S. Forces Afghanistan on Facebook
U.S. Forces Afghanistan on YouTube
NATO International Security Assistance Force
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil//news/newsarticle.aspx?id=55399
Officials Look to Solve Social Network Risks Without Ban
By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2009 – As Pentagon officials weigh the benefits and risks of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, they hope to craft a policy that shores up security vulnerabilities without requiring a ban.
Meanwhile, the Marine Corps has clarified its guidelines on social networking, and officials said they would consider the findings gleaned in the Pentagon policy review due out in late September.
Defense officials have said the policy review will attempt to balance the pros of social networking – such as its value for recruiting, public affairs and communication between troops and their families — against the potential security risks they create, which include violations of operations security, network vulnerability and bandwidth drain.
Asked if the Pentagon is leaning toward a policy that doesn’t require a departmentwide ban, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman replied, “I think certainly it is.”
“We need to do this comprehensive review, determine what the vulnerabilities are, match that against the benefits we receive from being able to use these new tools and capabilities, and then try to establish a policy that will accommodate all of that,” Whitman said in an interview yesterday.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is slated to receive a report on the threats and benefits of Web 2.0 tools before the end of the month, and a departmentwide policy is due in late September. Both Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have embraced the new technologies.
The Pentagon’s chief information officer is taking the lead on the review, which was prompted by concerns raised at U.S. Strategic Command, officials said. Stratcom is responsible for overseeing the use of the “dot-mil” network.
For many junior-ranking troops, Youtube, MySpace and Facebook are more than mere diversions; they are the primary means through which young servicemembers communicate with friends and families while on deployments. They also represent avenues for recruiting efforts and dialogue between commanders and military personnel and families, Whitman said.
“So it is a part of our society; it is pervasive,” he said. “But we also have to be mindful that we don’t do things that will impede our ability to do our core missions here.”
Concern for maintaining operations security exists in cyberspace as it does in other social arenas, Whitman said. He added that the military’s operations security training regimen — which emphasizes practicing security at the source — also translates to social networking.
“Whether I’m communicating over the Internet or I’m talking to somebody at a local establishment socially,” he said, “I should be mindful of [operations security] and what I say, and whether or not it’s going to compromise any aspect of a military operation.”
In the midst of underlying tension between social networking’s pros and cons, the absence of a standing Defense Department policy has led to differing interpretations of how to mitigate threats, Whitman said.
“It’s an unevenness in the way in which people have applied — locally — policies associated with how they have assessed the threat,” he said. “And it reflects the tension that exists between wanting to use these social networking tools and wanting to protect our networks.
“I think that tension … is important for us to resolve at a department level so that commanders have some guidance when they’re looking at how to use these tools, as well as how to protect the networks,” he added.
No departmentwide directives ban the use of social networking and other Web 2.0 applications. But the Marine Corps’ block on social networks underscores the unevenness Whitman described.
Since early 2007, the Corps has blocked Marines from accessing sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube through the Marine network. While Marines at home and abroad may use the sites on nonmilitary networks, only those with a waiver are exempted from the standing policy, Marine Corps officials said.
“Right now, the [Defense Department] has yet to come up with a policy on this,” said Ray Letteer, senior information assurance official for the Marine Corps. “So we … are just maintaining what has been the policy since 2007.”
The Marines this week issued a statement clarifying the service’s policy on social networking sites and spelling out guidelines for obtaining waivers in cases where access to such social networks is essential for a Marine’s military job.
As the Defense Department strives to find the right balance in its policy, the Corps also seeks to find harmony between security concerns and the Web capabilities’ legitimate use.
“We want to balance that security to protect our Marines on the network [and] at the same time start looking into using this new technology, this exciting capability of communication,” Letteer said, “but do it in a way … where we move in smartly, carefully and do it the right way the first time.”
He added that the Marines also will strive to balance the Defense Department’s study results with its own social networking policy.
“As with all directives from the Department of Defense, we will have to adapt and take a look at the impacts on this and be able to execute it in a way that will meet with what the [Defense Department] wants us to do,” Letteer said, “and still, of course, meet our Marine Corps mission.”
Related Articles:
Pentagon Weighs Social Networking Benefits, Risks
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.