Deployed troops can still post their videos to YouTube, despite the recently announced Pentagon ban against accessing that site and ten others from government computers. The trick, says Rear Admiral Elizabeth Hight, is to use your own internet access or visit one of the rec center internet cafes, which plug into separate, commercial networks. The ban, she says, applies only to the 5 million computers worldwide connected to the official Department of Defense intranet.
Despite Hight’s assurances that the YouTube ban is all about preserving precious bandwidth and has nothing to do with operational security, it’s hard to ignore the coincidence. Two weeks ago the Army announces new, more restrictive rules governing soldier-bloggers. This week the Pentagon cracks down on the major outlet for soldier-videographers. The DoD YouTube ban doesn’t totally restrict soldiers’ access to the popular video sharing site, but it is a first step in that direction.
The next step might take the form of a purported “upgrade” to the Army Knowledge Online intranet. The AKO portal connects soldiers to education materials, personnel directories and other military services. It can even be used to store large PowerPoint presentations so that those huge bandwidth hogs don’t have to be emailed to every intended viewer. The next-generation AKO, called Defense Knowledge Online, will include blogging, instant message and chatroom functions, according to Vernon Bettencourt, the Army’s deputy chief info officer.
That’s all well and good, assuming that DKO’s blogging capability doesn’t give Pentagon chiefs an excuse to ban all commercial blogging tools. After all, DKO blogs will be completely under military control. And judging from the recent crackdown on soldier-journos, complete military control might mean the end of unfiltered frontline reporting from the grunts on the ground.
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Hmmm.. sounds like sh*t to me. Posting a blog takes very little data… while given posting a video does take much much more bandwidth….
However, this’ll make it interesting when their tours are over… once they get back over here.. they’ll have lots of video to post.
Some men in the loop say most of the bandwidth is being used to keep open video conference rooms that get used once every few months, and for huge open Presentation Manager files. Seems the ‘crats are greedy, jealous little mousies.
[...] If so, we’re screwed. Seven years after the launch of Wikipedia — the user-edited online encyclopedia that brought the “open source” concept to the masses — the U.S. Army is still playing catch-up. The Army’s idea of harnessing the ‘net is to launch isolated websites, put generals in charge and lock everything behind passwords, while banning popular open-source civilian websites. Colonel James Galvin, head of the Army’s “Battle Command Knowledge System,” openly admits that when it comes to the collaborative internet, the bad guys have a “niche advantage.” [...]
I can see Warisboring’s point; I also understand DoD’s instinct to protect its information. I don’t agree with all of it as most of it loses it’s relevance shortly after being posted but I came from that environment of locking everything down. It’s called Information Security (INFOSEC) and Operations Security (OPSEC). It still has its place because we need to protect our warfighters from harm but we also need to leverage the network to adapt, move and learn faster than our adversaries. Our adversaries use this network very effectively as they’ve had to out of necessity. Necessity breeds invention.
That said, wikis, blogs, and threaded discussions (forums) are they way our digital natives operate. They are quite comfortable in that environment. And I have to agree with COL Galvin, not because he’s my boss—which he is— but because he understands that culture isn’t changed in an instant. Change management is a two way street.
AKO is going through this change as well…trying to provide an ‘enterprise’ solution for the Army and a place for Soldiers to post their stories (video, audio, text). The glitch is that it isn’t easy, it isn’t intuitive, and it comes across to many as Mother Army laying down the law. A true service oriented architecture capitalizes on those best of ‘known’ breed services instead of trying to assimilate those to become the ‘Borg’. I don’t care where I get the services, as long as I get them when I need them; wherever I need them. It’s like flicking on the light switch or turning on the faucet. I don’t care where it comes from but I expect clean power and water.
Ok, I screwed that up trying to use blockquotes.
Opps. Repost below.
BTW, a “preview” button might help.
“The next step might take the form of a purported “upgrade” to the Army Knowledge Online intranet. The AKO portal connects soldiers to education materials, personnel directories and other military services.”
And it does so… barely… and quite poorly.
It is a bit better than those old geocities pages we used to see in the late 90s.
“It can even be used to store large PowerPoint presentations so that those huge bandwidth hogs don’t have to be emailed to every intended viewer.”
Sure you can store files, if you can figure out its arcane and obscure methods of doing it.
But having your users find them or for a user to search out files of interest is so cumbersome that most people will default to a google search to see if something is posted there first simply because AKO is such a pain in the *** to use.
“The next-generation AKO, called Defense Knowledge Online, will include blogging, instant message and chatroom functions…”
Uh, yea right.
David, you really ought to sit down with someone who has AKO access and surf over their shoulder and see how the site is 1) structured and 2) organized.
Oh and ask AKO how many people they have available to provide training to soldiers, units and organizations on how to use the site, best practices, etc…
Last I asked (fall 07) they said they had less than 6 for the entire US Army, Army Reserves and National Guard.
Conservatively, that is only a ratio of about 1:650,000 users – not counting contractors and other sponsored accounts (family, etc).
Oh and I work for BCKS on the military side.
Keep in mind that BCKS uses Tomeyo Ecco for what they do and it is absolutely hideous to work with.
I’ll post some more about that in the comments over at http://warisboring.com/?p=878.
Drop me a line if you want to know more.