NewsChannel8 :: social networking sites for the military

Dateline: June 25, 2009 Arlington, Virginia NewsChannel8 appearance w/Beverly Kirk

When you think about social networking you normally think of a teenager on Facebook inviting friends to a party. Well, what about social networking with the U.S. Army? Social networking and Web 2.0 initiatives are hot with federal IT professionals. It’s one thing to share information with a civilian agency, but completely different prospect with the military. One of the biggest challenges federal IT professionals face is taking the Obama initiative on transparency and applying it to the warfighter.

The two best known projects are Intellipedia and the DoD Techipedia. Intelipedia (2006) is a way for agencies to share information securely in the (16 agencies) intelligence community; the DoD Techipedia (2008) was just showcased at the White House as an example of using technology to help serve the military.

In order to learn more you may want to visit:

http://www.defenselink.mil/

http://www.defensesolutions.gov/

http://www.dodlive.mil/

For years, the IT world has talked about information silos. For example, if three different areas of the military are working on a problem with, for example, radar – it may be a good idea not to re-invent the wheel at each location. Secondly, if you are discussing an idea to help a warfighter with a wide group, rather than tracking down six version of an email message, it is simply more efficient to have one version of the truth at a central site. Finally, instead of the traditional formal structure, social networking helps gain speed in solving problems in the field.

The Department of Defense has a group called the Defense Media Activity (WFED interview here)– they are letting the media know of the innovative activities in the area of social networking for the warfighter.

If you want an up-close-and-personal picture, there is an Open Government Innovations Conference July 21, 2009 with IT rock stars Vivek Kundra and Aneesh Chopra.

For a wider perspective in social networking, you may want to visit
McKinsey Quarterly http://freethinkr.wordpress.com/2008/11/01/mckinseys-business-trends-to-watch/

http://freethinkr.wordpress.com/2007/08/31/how-business-uses-web-20-its-all-about-relevance-says-mckinsey-study/

HBR http://freethinkr.wordpress.com/2007/05/09/hbr-study-community-built-aro/und-product-sells-more-product/

Oxford University Internet Institute (UK) http://freethinkr.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/oxford-university-institute-study-on-open-innovation-to-be-released/

Forrester http://freethinkr.wordpress.com/2007/07/23/more-evidence-shows-community -drives-product-sales/
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