Air Force makes about-face to embrace Web 2.0

[CommunityEditor]

The Air Force’s new front in shaping its public reputation and fighting enemy propaganda is YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere. The move is an about-face from the service’s long reluctance to engage Web 2.0.

The Air Force Public Affairs Agency stood up its emerging technology office in October in part to counter online enemies increasingly savvy in information warfare.

Getting the Air Force message out through such new media is “instant and transparent. It provides our voice to a conversation that’s not currently there,” said Capt. David Faggard, Chief of Emerging Technology.

Part of the official push so far to engage airmen, potential recruits and service supporters online:

* Hap Arnold, the Air Force’s long-passed first chief, can be “friended” on Facebook.

* The Air Force blog links to free downloads from “Max Impact,” the rock group within the Air Force band, including its song “Lock and Loaded,” in which airmen sing about “dancing in the shadows” while “calling in an A-10 strike.”

* Followers of the service’s Twitter microblog can be updated on new videos on the Air Force’s YouTube feed, including one titled: “Want 2 jump out of a perfectly good Osprey?”

Faggard’s office has posted all of the above over the last several months in response to a mandated Pentagon online push. As part of the 2004 Quadrennial Defense Review, the Defense Department’s planning and doctrine guide, the department directed all services to expand their presence online and encourage their members to reach out directly to the public in 2006, Holt said. To that end, the Air Force’s emerging technology office is developing an online policy to give airmen guidelines on blogging; it should be released in the next few months.

The Defense Department also pushed greater use of digital resources to help counter propaganda spread by terrorists through the Internet, said Jack Holt, chief of new media operations of the new Defense Media Activity.

Terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida have used the Web to post videos of attacks on U.S. forces and send messages calling for the spread of violence.

The Air Force now has loaded its YouTube channel chock full of video clips of unmanned aerial vehicle strikes and A-10 assaults on insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The blogging guidelines are aimed at encouraging airmen to share experiences that reflect well on the service and to train them in how to respond to critical postings.

Faggard’s goal is to teach blogging and online information at the Air Force Academy, Officer Training School and basic training. Already on tap is a road show to educate public affairs officers about how to work with blogs online.

Step-by-step in cyberspace
The draft guidelines include a colored flow chart on how airmen should respond to blog posts. It identifies four types of negative blog posts and gives airmen a framework for how to handle them.

The chart advises airmen not to respond to a negative post that denigrates others. If the information in the critical blog post is bad, airmen should correct it and provide links to additional sources. Airmen are encouraged to identify themselves as service members and “respond in a tone that reflects highly on the rich history of the Air Force,” the chart says.

However, the effort raises some concerns that the Air Force is encouraging its own brand of propaganda.

“The basic question is, ‘Are they encouraging people to speak for themselves?’” said David Weinberger of the Berkman Center of Internet and Society at Harvard University.

Faggard says yes, but the Air Force has been criticized by regular Internet users for being slow to embrace online communications potential.

military blogger Susan Katz Keating said that putting faces on service members by allowing them to blog can work to the advantage of the military.

“It will humanize the services more,” she said. “This just reaches out to society at large as more personal.”

In that vein, Pacific Air Force began developing PacAF Pixels (http://www.pacafpixels.com/), which features blog postings by airmen as well as nonmilitary bloggers.

Nate Hale, a former airmen and mil-blogger with the blog In from the Cold (http://formerspook.blogspot.com), said the Air Force was on the right track but the question will be how far will the Air Force go to embrace the Web.

“Is the service willing to tackle controversial subjects in its new web venues?” Hale wrote in an e-mail. “That may be the ultimate test for this experiment.”

Said Col. Ward Heinke of Air Force Network Operations Center at Barksdale Air Force Base, La.: “That is a constantly changing dynamic; we are always striving to support the users of networks. It’s always an ongoing conversation.”


Article: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/20..._rules_010909/

* Hap Arnold, the Air Force’s long-passed first chief, can be “friended” on Facebook.

* The Air Force blog links to free downloads from “Max Impact,” the rock group within the Air Force band, including its song “Lock and Loaded,” in which airmen sing about “dancing in the shadows” while “calling in an A-10 strike.”

* Followers of the service’s Twitter microblog can be updated on new videos on the Air Force’s YouTube feed, including one titled: “Want 2 jump out of a perfectly good Osprey?”


This is exactly the cornball, goofy crap that 50 yr leadership and their guidelines produce. They're failing at trying to be relevant, just stop it already. They're not hip and are out of touch, there needs to be a better approach than "Locked and Loaded." My started to hurt while reading about dancing in the shadows.

[MACHINE666]

If Air Force leadership really wants to appeal to the public, they should allow its people to be people and share their experiences for better or for worse. I remember a few years ago the Air Force was specifically targeting My Space and You Tube, looking to bust anything that wasn't P.C. or that met their Dudley Do-Right wholesome appearance. Suddenly photos of you and your friends enjoying themselves off-duty were considered taboo and I even knew a guy who claims he was singled out by General Fogelsong directly, over a website he had dedicated to his drinking buddies. Plus, let's not forget about the guy who did www.howtokillpeople.com - a parody website that was something you'd find on Comedy Central, and not how to literally harm people. He was a general's aid for the California ANG who in no way revealed his identity with the military but was still made an example of. It's no wonder I don't trust the leadership we have, and I for one frankly refuse to blog about my experiences in the military for this very reason. Until the Air Force takes the approach of "share your lives with the public but don't compromise OPSEC/COMSEC" I am not willing to risk being their posterboy by painting a pretty picture. To do so would be compromising that whole Integrity thing we claim to follow.

I was the "poster boy" for the Air Force about a year ago after an over zealous OSI agent put together a power point briefing which made me appear to compromise F-22 facts & figures. I was investigated not once but twice due to that person & the briefing, and cleared both times because I had done nothing wrong, compromised no information, everything was already in the public domain. I learned a painful lesson, you can not trust that when push comes to shove ANYONE will step up to defend you - I was left in the cold, no one of rank said anything in my defense in public, my name & reputation was left tarnished - for trying to do a good thing for the air force to defend & prop up an aircraft I believed in and think is vital to our national defense. (In fact I had guidance from public affairs and multiple senior officials to do what I was doing as the "face" of the F-22 because I was the airshow pilot). Not one senior offical ever said anything publicly to support me. Maybe I was supported behind closed doors, I don't know, but that doesn't matter when your name is splashed in jest in the public domain.

I implore anyone that takes this change of air force attitude to heart and believes they have a mandate to blog on line, post on you tube, etc., PLEASE - think twice before you do so. You are expendable and if you say the wrong thing, someone decides they don't like it, there's even a "perception" of or by someone you're doing something wrong or they don't agree with - YOU are putting yourself into a square corner and will likely be left with no options & no recourse to defend yourself. Every single one of us is expendable, even the most senior officials (look at the recent CSAF firing) even though we may not believe it or think ourselves immune. I put myself at risk here of opening old wounds for one reason only - to prevent you who may read this of making the same mistake and earning & having to endure the ridicule of scores of people. I have HUNDREDS, yes hundreds of emails saved that were sent to my work, my home, my family & friends (yes my family in faraway states actually had the brief sent to them!) - and I won't even mention what was said, suffice it to say it wasn't friendly. Do yourself a favor - do NOT take this to heart and stay off line, you'll thank yourself when you're not the next scapegoat. It was the single lowest point of 18 years of service to my country and a very lonely time. Even posting this response scares me though I feel compelled to do so. Learn from that!

[ringjamesa]

I remember not too long ago, there was a video on youtube and going around via email with pictures of the area around Cannon AFB. The CC was VERY unhappy even though all of the pictures were of actual stuff you see around Cannon and nothing was of anything onbase that would comprimise OPSEC. It was just a funny vid (for those of us that have been there) and scary to those that were sentanced to go there.