Army Orders Bases to Stop Blocking Twitter, Facebook, Flickr

[kpete]

Source: Wired

Army Orders Bases to Stop Blocking Twitter, Facebook, Flickr

The Army has ordered its network managers to give soldiers access to social media sites like Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter, Danger Room has learned. That move reverses a years-long trend of blocking the web 2.0 locales on military networks.

Army public affairs managers have worked hard to share the service’s stories through social sites like Flickr, Delicious and Vimeo. Links to those sites featured prominently on the Army.mil homepage. The Army carefully nurtured a Facebook group tens of thousands strong, and posted more than 4,100 photos to a Flickr account. Yet the people presumably most interested in these sites — the troops — were prevented from seeing the material. Many Army bases banned access to the social networks.

An operations order from the Army’s 93rd Signal Brigade to all domestic Directors of Information Management, or DOIMs, aims to correct that. Issued on May 18th “for official use only,” the document has not been made public until now.

It is “the intent of senior Army leaders to leverage social media as a medium to allow soldiers to ‘tell the Army story’ and to facilitate the dissemination of strategic, unclassified information,” says the order, obtained by Danger Room. Therefore, “the social media sites available from the Army homepage will be made accessible from all campus area networks. Additionally, all web-based email will be made accessible.”

Read more: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/06/army-orders-bases-stop-blocking-twitter-facebook-flickr/

[JuniperLea]

1. Gosh! I guess we're no longer afraid...

To hear what's going on with our soldiers!

Interesting...

I'm sure being able to communicate with home will make a lot of people very happy. Good deal.

[DissedByBush]

4. They can already communicate to home

The Army has a free service for that.

[pasto76]

5. really? what would that be?

we had a satphone that would come around every 3 or 4 weeks. 5 minutes each. Then after 3 months or so "They" decided that enough bases had phone centers (not free) for us to call home on.....except my units mission was to BUILD the camps. So we were literally always leaving a week or two before phones or internet came online.

Except one time at FOB Silverlion. The Internet was supposed to be available. I used to ask the guy who ran the building when, and he would give me a countdown. Then the guy who was supposed to come set it up was killed on a convoy. So we left to build a new camp before a replacement could be in place. True story.

After that, internet and phones were pay to play.

[DissedByBush]

9. How long ago was that?

It sounds like the situation I had in the early 1990's. Now they have Internet and Army Knowledge Online with email, IM and chat. Every soldier is supposed to get a regular chance to use it for free. Family members get access from home or can go on base.

The command failed you if you did not get a chance.

[DURHAM D]

2. Given it just applies to state side bases this doesn't seem like a big deal. n/t

[DissedByBush]

3. Publicity over security

Opsec's gonna be a bitch. They already have problems with soldiers getting a little too loose-lipped and publishing things that embarrass the Army. Now they can do it on Army time.

[CRK7376]

6. A couple of months ago

my unit PAO posted an email that our large organization now had a facebook page. Great, can't access it at work though....We'll see if that changes in the near future.

[No Elephants]

7. Will they be allowed to post whatever they wish, without suffering for unflattering posts?

[galledgoblin]

8. must be a huge morale boost

I'm glad to hear this, and while security is a worry, I'm sure our people have enough common sense and training to know what not to post.