Letting troops blog and Tweet is just the start. The Defense Department's spooks, spinners, geeks, and top generals would all get new roles and responsibilities, if the Pentagon approves a draft policy on how the armed services handle Web 2.0.
The draft memo outlining that policy, first revealed yesterday by Nextgov, is designed to end years of confusion over the military's interactions of social media. It hasn't been okayed by the Pentagon's leadership. But if it does, the new guidelines would allow servicemembers to use the Defense Department's unclassified networks to hop on everything from "social networking sites" to "image and video hosting websites" to "Wikis" to "personal, corporate or subject-specific blogs" to "data mashups." (That's right: "mashups" are now being discussed at the Defense Department's highest levels.)
According to the memo, troops can Facebook or YouTube or Flickr all they want -- it doesn't have to be work-related. The servicemembers just can't claim to be officially representing the military or "have an online presence that could be viewed as representing the Department of Defense (e.g., may not use official title, military rank, military identifiers (i.e., e-mail address), or post imagery with their military uniform)." Of course, the servicememebers would also have to comply with pre-existing regulations "regarding responsible and effective use of Internet-based capabilities," too.
Some in the military have called for banning or severely restricting the Web 2.0 sites, because of their potential to leak secrets or spread Trojans. It'd be up to the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence "develop and maintain threat estimates" from these "current and emerging Internet-based capabilities," the memo states. The Pentagon's top spook would also be responsible for making sure operational security "education, training and awareness activities" would also include blogs and the like.
The heads of the military's various "components" -- from the Secretary of the Army to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness -- would get some extra work, as well. They'd have to put up "Computer Network Defense mechanisms that provide adequate security to access Internet-based capabilities" from the military's networks.
The Defense Department's public affairs chiefs would oversee policies for official social media sites. While the military's Chief Information Officers would put together policies for Web 2.0's "use, risk management and compliance oversight," and be on the lookout for "emerging Internet-based capabilities in order to identify opportunities for use and assess risks."
UPDATE: Here's the memo itself.
[Photo: U.S. Army]
ALSO:
- Draft Policy Would OK Troops' Tweets
- Pentagon Social Media Czar Pushes Web 2.0, Despite Ban Threat
- WTF? Military Web 2.0 Report Actually Making Sense
- Marines Ban Twitter, MySpace, Facebook
- Army Orders Bases to Stop Blocking Twitter, Facebook, Flickr
- Military May Ban Twitter, Facebook as Security 'Headaches'
- Military Defends MySpace Ban
- Air Force Releases 'Counter-Blog' Marching Orders
- Army Audits: Official Sites, Not Blogs, Breach Security
- New Army Rules Could Kill G.I. Blogs (Maybe E-mail, Too)
