Military and Federal use of Web 2.0

Technology is changing at a fast pace thanks to digital cameras, computers, cellular phones and the internet. These advancements offer information to move at an even faster rate. The internet was created for military applications first so to not keep up with it would be a horrible mistake. First the military tried to fight what is called Web 2.0, which consists of things like social media or web logs or otherwise known as blogs. Web 2.0 is online interactive sharing of information which allows users to collaborate and enjoy mutually. Seeing both the need to get information to internal and out externally to the public and know and understand their needs, both the military and federal government has launched their own presence on Web 2.0. According to the Department of Defense or DoD, (Joint Chief of Staff (JCS) Public Affairs Social Media and Online Strategy for 2010), they discovered that Facebook was the second most popular website, right behind Google. Also cited by the DoD, Facebook received 134 unique visitors in the month of January 2010 alone. With more and more people starting to use social media sites daily, a new venue has emerged to make contact with the public and for the public to interact with them in return. The JCS footprint consists of a website with more than 55,000 daily page views, Twitter with more than 16,000 followers, Facebook with 8,600+ fans, YouTube, iTunes, Flickr, and even a Blog. The DoD strategy for Web 2.0 has four major goals; Engage, Align, Drive and Expand. The military wants to engage internally and externally interactive conversations. The DoD wants to align content with their strategic communications. To use social media content in all shapes and forms to drive the content in front of military events and guide debate. All the time DoD wants to be able to expand their presence in the world of Web 2.0.
A great side effect of the use of Web 2.0 comes from service member’s ability to contact their home fronts while deployed to far ends of the world (Altman, 2010). One Air Force Airman, a Senior Master Sgt. Rex Temple produced a blog called Afghanistan My Last Tour, which he communicated his daily deployed life to military and civilian alike, Temple was also able to communicate with his wife via Facebook every day. These kinds of things make a deployed service members daily grind a little bit more bearable. According to the istrategylabs.com (2011), Facebook users from the military are the

following; U.S. Army 319,500, U.S. Navy 184,920, U.S. Air Force 132,500 and the U.S. Marines 91,700. In a post by Temple, called Scorpion and Social Media, he talks about the need for service members to be able to communicate with friends and family. He talks about how the internet at his Forward Operating Base (FOB) was expensive and sometimes unreliable. Then a rumor spreads that the military is considering cutting access to social websites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Temple is not against a ban but he points out that a young Soldier or Airmen’s morale is enhanced by their ability to communicate with family and loved ones from these far off and dangerous places. During Desert Storm, we would have to wait weeks to receive correspondence by mail from our families, now we can talk live time with them. At many deployed locations Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR) provides computers with Internet access. These MWR locations most times work on different bandwidth, which doesn’t effect mission requirements, but some locations the bandwidth must be controlled and rationed so the mission requirements are not hampered. (Click the above picture and follow the link) Not to be out done or left out of this technology revolution, the federal government has taken action to make its Web 2.0 presence known. When the Pew Internet and American Life Project (2009) completed research on Government online they discovered 82% of people who now use the internet, did so to do one thing or another on government websites in a 12 month period. The report also stated users looked into public policy, services, government forms, documents, and statistics among other things. The Pew report was able to classify the needs of citizens online. 40% of users looked for data, to include things like campaign spending or legislation. Blogs, social networking sites and email were used by 31% to obtained government information. While 23% of online Americans wanted to share their observations of the government. The U.S. government saw a way to reconnect with Americans on a large scale. They have developed guidance and plans to educate agencies on how to do this. On the WebContent.gov website (2010, para 1), along with training and guidelines on who to implement, it advises users that “Social media tools use the “wisdom of crowds” to collaboratively connect online information”.
On the HowTo.gov website, a site that provides information and training for government officials and agencies how and why to become involved in web 2.0, the sites could be used to bring together employees and those interested in what their agency does. These public accessed social networking websites can be also used to provide information events. HowTo.gov also talks about using web 2.o can be used for interagency and intergovernmental reasons, to encourage cooperation. NASA has been using their CoLab program to open up to the public and tech-savvy communities, which has help with contributions from these individuals and organizations to improve their efforts. With the expanding use of Web 2.0 a need to insure the security of the users and the government systems being used. Tech. Sgt Phyllis Hanson (2010) of the Air Force explained that a new secure social network for Airmen and other warfighters communicate, collaborate and share data behind a firewall. A group called the CIO Council (2009) was formed to research and recommend information technology security for the federal government. The group states that the government systems are under “persistent, pervasive, aggressive threats.” They advise agencies where the threats are and how to mitigate any risks. These recommendations are not based on any specific technology due to the ever changing and developing technology. Instead they suggest to base policy on the users and their on and off duty behavior. The DoD determined through research that the threat against the United States Government and Military was very credible and choose to establish a military organization equipped, manned and trained to protect the military networks. On May

21, 2010 the U.S. Cyber Command or USCYBERCOM was stood up under the command of the current chief of the National Security Agency (NSA), General Keith B. Alexander. According to the USCYBERCOM official website (2011) their Mission is; “USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes, and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full-spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries.” In a interview with AirForceTimes.com, (2010) Gen Alexander was quoted about the mission of both the NSA and USCYBERCOM, which he answered “while cyberspace is a dynamic, rapidly evolving environment, what will never change will be an unwavering dedication by both Cyber Command and the National Security Agency to the protection of civil liberties and privacy of American citizens.” Social media has changed the world from individuals to major corporations to the U.S. Military and the federal government. Where does this all go from here? According to Lawlor (2008) the military plans on using what is being called Web 3.0 or Semantic Web. An Army system that will track where soldiers are on a battle field. The Navy has tested the use of chat rooms for critical command and control. The director of the Navel Reserve uses podcasts to help build policies. A draft policy is published to appropriate sections for review and changes in a short specific time, which shortens the normal time. Lawlor goes on to describe that the Los Angeles Fire Department used Web 2.0 to plan missions and forward information to forces in the field to handheld devices. The world is changing fast in these times of technological advances and the military and government have chosen to change with it and to help the change along.



 References

 Altman, Howard (2010). Deployed Military Use Social Media to Keep in Touch. Retrieved February 4, 2011, from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=2017016751&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientId=74379&RQT=309&VName=PQD CIO Council. (2009). Guidelines for Secure Use of Social Media by Federal Departments and Agencies. Retrieved February 4, 2011, from http://www.cio.gov/Documents/Guidelines_for_Secure_Use_Social_Media_v01-0.pdf Department of Defense. (2010) Chairman’s 2010 Social Media Strategy. Retrieved February 4, 2011, from http://www.slideshare.net/DepartmentofDefense/chairmans-2010-social-media-strategy HowTo.gov (2011) Social Networks and Government. Retrieved February 4, 2011 from http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/technology/social_networks.shtml Istrategylabs (2011) 2011 Facebook Demographics and Statistics-Including Federal Employees and Gays in the Military. Retrieved February 6, 2011 from http://www.istrategylabs.com/2011/01/2011-facebook-demographics-and-statistics-including-federal-employees-and-gays-in-the-military/ Lawlor, Maryann (2008). Web 2.0, Military Style. Retrieved February 4, 2011, from http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/templates/Signal_Article_Template.asp?articleid=1527&zoneid=228 Pew Internet, Pew Internet and American Life Project. (2010). Government Online. Retrieved February 4, 2011, from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Government-Online.aspx?r=1 Temple, R (2009) Scorpion and Social Media Websites. Retrieved February 4, 2011 from, Afghanistan My Last Tour http://afghanistanmylasttour.com/2009/08/08/scorpion-and-social-media-websites/ United States Strategic Command (2011) U.S. Cyber Command. Retrieved February 5, 2011, from http://www.stratcom.mil/factsheets/Cyber_Command/ WebContent.gov. (2010). Social Media and Web 2.0 in Government. Retrieved February 4, 2011, from http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/technology/other_tech.shtml