The American military is embracing Web 2.0:
"If Ashton Kutcher can do it, the U.S. Army can do it," said Lindy Kyzer, who posts the Army's "status updates" on Facebook and "tweets" on Twitter. Kyzer issued a public challenge - to get more followers on Twitter than Kutcher, an actor and social networking fiend who recently won a bet with CNN that he could reach 1 million followers first.
As I write, the Army has 5,481 followers on Twitter and 13,726 fans on Facebook. It has a ways to go to catch Kutcher, but after some hesitance, the Army is utilizing social networking at many levels. Even four-star General Raymond Odierno, the current Commanding General of Multi-National Force--Iraq (MNF-I), has a Facebook page, where I learn that he enjoys listening to Frank Sinatra, watches the television show Everybody Loves Raymond, and lists Animal House as one of his favorite movies. He also provides updates from the field. I wonder if Gen. George Washington would have tweeted "Crossing the Delaware" in the winter of 1776 had he been able.
But the military's transition to these technologies has not been smooth. Noah Shachtman writes on Wired's Danger Room blog:
The U.S. military has been stumbling around for years, trying to figure out what to do with social media. A zillion reports on Web 2.0 tech have been produced -- each one more clueless n00b-y than the next.
After struggling with how to handle soldiers writing blogs and posting photos from their bases, the DoD banned YouTube and MySpace in 2007. It replaced YouTube with a watered-down version called TroopTube, which screens uploaded videos for taste, copyright violations and national security issues. But this did not go smoothly. Many military bases ended up blocking TroopTube in addition to YouTube. Wired reported:
Instead of the raw battlefield footage seen on LiveLeak and YouTube, the videos on the military site are boiled-chicken bland. Sample titles: "The Most Shared Flag in America"; "First Lady Michelle Obama reads 'Cat in the Hat' to Military Children"; "UXO [Unexploded Ordnance] Are Not Souvenirs"; "Star Wars characters march in the Neptune Festival parade." Not surprisingly, perhaps, the site doesn't appear to have attracted much of an audience. Only a handful of videos have more than a few thousand plays.
In a sign that the armed forces are realizing out how to utilize Web 2.0, the National Defense University released this report [PDF] called "Social Software and National Security: An Initial Net Assessment" earlier this month. It has been well received, and concludes:
Because social software can add significant value to many ongoing missions, and because citizens, allies, and opponents will use it regardless, this paper recommends that national security institutions, particularly DOD, embrace its responsible usage.
For more on these issues, check out our interview with Wired For War author P.W. Singer. He discusses the struggles and successes of the military to integrate Web-2.0 technology and the new generation of Digital Native soldiers, who have grown up surrounded with it.
-Jeff
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