A Marathon, Not a Sprint: This kick-off panel brings together a variety of speakers, including some of the earliest milbloggers. Panelists will reflect on five conferences and several years of milblogging. Speakers will discuss the evolution of milblogging and share their thoughts on what they think the future of milblogging may look like
Saturday, April 10 (9:00A - 5:30P):
The Charitable Landscape: Representatives from various troop supporting organizations will examine how the use of social media has changed the way non-profits communicate with their membership, donors and the general public. This panel will discuss the challenges and benefits of social media, and how we can assist in their efforts to support the military community
National Security Smorgasbord: A diverse panel of reporters, strategists and pundits discuss a wide range of topics including the state of our National Security, the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and media coverage of military affairs
The View from the Top: Senior military leaders from a variety of branches discuss the rewards and challenges of social media in a military environment
Legislation, Military-Style: Lawmakers and policy-wonks discuss the legislative side of policy-making with respect to military affairs
Confirmed speakers will be announced soon, so stay tuned.
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We are pleased to announce the addition of VA Mortgage Center as a sponsor for the upcoming 2010 MILblog Conference.
Without the support of our sponsors, the conference wouldn't be possible. We greatly appreciate all of our sponsors! For a list of more sponsors, click here.
We have a variety of sponsorships available; several options can be mixed and matched. Our packages can accommodate the smallest of budgets and are constructed so that both large and small organizations can participate. For more information on sponsorships, click here.
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We have a jam-packed Fifth Anniversary Conference this year. Over the years, the conference has been transformed from a conference solely about milblogging, to a conference rich with blog-worthy content. Our conferences now produce lively, engaging discussions on a variety of issues of interest to the military community. Friday night, we're going to focus on milblogging, and Saturday we'll hear from a variety of reporters, bloggers, strategists, thinkers, senior military leaders and others as they offer their opinions on a host of topics. If you thought the diversity of topics and speakers at last year's conference was an interesting mix, wait until you see this year's line-up!
Our kick-off panel will take place Friday, April 9 from 6:30 - 7:45P. We'll feature some oldies but goodies of the milblogosphere. This is the night to focus on all things milblogging - past, present and future.
A Marathon, Not a Sprint: This kick-off panel brings together a variety of speakers, including some of the earliest milbloggers. Panelists will reflect on five conferences and several years of milblogging. Speakers will discuss the evolution of milblogging and share their thoughts on what they think the future holds for milblogging.
Panelists include:
Greyhawk - Air Force Veteran
Matt Burden - Army Veteran
Baldilocks - Air Force Veteran
SGT Mom - Military Mom
TBA
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So! The Pentagon’s new “open-door” policy on social networking is, oh, around five days old. How’s that working out? The results of our totally unscientific reader survey are in.
Commenter “C2dude” said: “Called the IT help desk yesterday, and they hadn’t even heard of the new memorandum from the DOD … I had to forward it to them.”
A reader with U.S. European Command wrote in to complain: “EUCOM is still blocking access to Facebook and Twitter.”
Read more over Wired.com.
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The U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command hopes to advance the conversation about Army technologies, inform the public about Army initiatives and showcase the work the Army technology team does to make Soldiers strong and America safe.
“This is a good match for people interested in science and technology,” said Joseph Ferrare, RDECOM spokesperson. “As we see emerging communications venues, there’s an opportunity to tell the Army story. Our goal is to showcase the exiting new technologies our Army scientists and engineers are developing.”
The application is a mash-up of syndicated news feeds from various sources. Officials said future versions will include more news sources.
The app downloads current news features after it launches. Included are entries to the Army Technology Live blog, the official RDECOM homepage, job listings, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and more.
My wife has an iPhone and she lets me test and download useful apps all the time. Army Technology Live will make a great addition to our iPhone...right alongside my iBeer app.
Read the entire story here.
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Today the military opened up the rules on social media--Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and the others will be authorized unless temporarily blocked by local commanders. But the authority of local commanders, especially in a war zone, is hard for a civilian to imagine. In November last year, I was accused of an OPSEC violation on my blog.
I wrote a post a week after a missile attack on the base. I did not write about the attack itself, but about one of the dumbest soldiers in our unit. A missile hit the 800 horsepower (huge) generator outside his Living Area compound. It wrecked the generator but did not explode. The idiot in question took out his camera and climbed up on the smoking wreck of a generator to get a picture of the unexploded missile.
You can read Neil's full account here. Hat tip to David Marron of The Thunder Run.
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This is one story that is getting a lot of interest. After months and months of speculation, the Department of Defense has finally released its official policy on new/social media, ending the debate on the fate of social media within the DoD. And the policy is encouraging, however for the average new/social media user, there will probably be more questions than answers. Either way, the policy is a step in the right direction, but it’s not really shocking news considering the DoD has been launching literally hundreds of social media sites over the past year. The article announcing the news has been online less than a day over at the Social Media Hub and already has over 200 retweets and almost 1,000 Facebook shares.
The policy Directive-Type Memorandum 09-026, which is effective immediately, states that the default for the DoD non-classified network (the NIPRNET) is for open access so that all of DoD can use new media. This is DoD’s first official policy on new media. Prior to today, the Services and other DoD components developed and implemented their own ad hoc policies — some banning it all together. Under this new policy, there will be open and consistent access across the board, but prohibited content sites (gambling, pornography, hate-crime activities) will still be blocked. Also, Commanders at all levels and heads of DoD components will continue to keep networks safe from malicious activity and take actions, as required, to safeguard missions.
Service members and DoD employees are welcome and encouraged to use new media to communicate with family and friends — at home stations or deployed — but it’s important to do it safely. Keep in mind that everyone has a responsibility to protect themselves and their information online, and existing regulations on ethics, operational security, and privacy still apply. Be sure never to post any information that could be considered classified, sensitive, or that might put military members or families in danger.
Of course, does this mean millions of DoD personnel are going to sign up for twitter or facebook or start blogs tomorrow? In my opinion, the numbers won’t be very dramatic, but hopefully for those who had blocked internet access on DoD computers, can now get online. Then again, some people don’t even bother using new/social media sites like YouTube or even know what they are. To put things in perspective, my Mom still calls MySpace, MyFace.
You can download and read the entire policy here in Adobe PDF format. I recommend you read it. It’s only 9 pages long and is fairly straightforward. Of course, it’s not as intriguing as reading the major theories of physics or the Navy CIO’s blog on interoperability within the Enterprise architecture, but still -- pretty good.
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It’s been a busy work week, and having a little IT background myself, I thought I’d point out a story by SmartPlanet that discusses the Navy CIO’s blog turning two years old. It’s an interesting write up by John Dodge who takes a look at the phenomenon of CIO blogging and the Navy.
Definitive stats on CIOs who publicly blog are hard to find, but one impromptu search in 2009 turned up a mere dozen and sure enough, Carey’s CIO Blog was listed among them. Several were academics and one CIO was well-known IT thought leader and gadget freak John Halamka MD with CareGroup Health Systems in Boston.
While the CIO Blog from one of the nation’s top sailors is intended to open a dialog within what has long been considered the most change-resistant branch of the military, the comments to his posts tend to be five here and five there.
Make sure to check out the story by SmartPlanet, then jump over to the Navy CIO’s blog --- that is if you haven’t already added it to your daily reads. I mean, how can you not get excited about things like “Enterprise Architecture” and “Interoperability”?!
It’s practically a nail biter.
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Indiantown Gap was a training experience for the 301st Port Company. We were given the opportunity to use our hard won knowledge in a real situation. We were very familiar with the equipment and material at our disposal on Base, but...We had no idea of what we would encounter elsewhere.
Early in December of '43, we were shipped to Boston, Mass. by rail, and spent some twenty hours in a crowded Pullman Coach....
Read Solomon’s latest post here.
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While it seems the mainstream media is sometimes quick to dismiss the efforts of military bloggers for their raw frontline stories, they’re also quick to take credit for breaking stories, that were breaking on the internet long before they made news headlines. Great work by Mark and dozens of other military bloggers who helped take down this imposter. Here’s the newest story online by the Navy Seals blog:
It is certainly interesting to note how, despite the growing number of people who are working towards exposing military fakers and the increasing number of bloggers who document the efforts of these volunteers, there are still people with the audacity to try and masquerade as the heroes that they are not.
Case in point is an article on the Army Times that shared how another hero-wannabe was exposed. One cannot help but think: when will they ever learn?
It was, however, another accomplishment for the POW Network as well as blogger Mark Seavey, who, along with fellow bloggers, posted a photo of a self-proclaimed “Army General,” bedecked with all sorts of medallions imaginable.
Read the entire story here.
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Hat tip to Boston Maggie for sharing the frontline military blog of Rajiv Srinivasan, a Soldier who is currently deployed to Afghanistan. He also tweets from the frontlines. You can check out his blog here which is loaded with great photos of Afghanistan.
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While the plans are to continue to use the Milblogging.com nomination and voting system for this years’ Milbloggies, plans are still on the drawing board for other systems. If you have suggestions for web-based nomination/voting systems, feel free to drop me a line: milblogging@gmail.com or leave your thoughts in the comments.
This year’s Milbloggies will be handled a little bit differently, too. While nominations and voting will be public, the winners will be revealed at the Milblog Conference taking place in Virginia.
Have a fear of speaking in public? Your prayers have been answered. Winners will also get a chance to speak in front of a big crowd while accepting their award during Saturday night's Dinner and Party.
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"Accurate and timely information has always been critical to the military but its importance is increasing as societies become more networked," he said. "This is intimately linked to developments in cyberspace; as we saw in the conflict in Gaza in early 2009, operations on the ground were paralleled by operations in cyber-space and an 'info ops' campaign that was fought across the internet: the Israeli Air Force downloaded sensor imagery onto YouTube, tweets warned of rocket attacks and the 'help-us-win.com' blog was used to mobilise public support."
Read the entire story here.
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Just over a year ago I started regularly using Twitter. It started as an experiment more than anything else, to see if Twitter could be a useful tool for interacting with other people to discuss military topics particularly around the DoD and Social Media. I also tweet about personal things too, but usually conversations around my likes on movies or just things I’m doing from day to day. My first mobile tweeting experience occurred last February when I got an invite to the National Press club in D.C. for a pre-screening of Brothers at War. I didn't even know what a retweet was at the time.
In the past year, the number of followers to my Twitter account has skyrocketed, reaching over 80,000 followers as of last week, which puts @Milblogging near the top 1,000 twitter accounts online according to Twitterholic.com (a website that tracks twitter statistics and rankings).
For what seemed like months, I had regularly tweeted on a daily basis. #MilitaryMon on Mondays to #FollowFriday on Fridays. It’s been a lot of fun, and rewarding. I’ve met new people, discovered a whole new community of military supporters, and it’s even helped drive traffic back to the Milblogging.com website.
Like any of the popular social networking tools, tweeting just like blogging takes time. And over the last several weeks I’ve been staying very busy with family, work and blogging in case you’ve noticed a drop in my tweeting activity. For those of you who have written me personally and asked about my whereabouts, I have plans to get back on Twitter very soon. I dig it and have had some great conversations over the last year – and yes, I miss it.
If you still don’t believe that Twitter is that big of a deal, you should give it a shot.
For those of you interested in driving traffic back to your main website, or if you’re just looking to have conversations with like-minded folks, it’s a great social networking tool. And while I don’t run any ads on my Twitter account, Twitter advertising is also getting big, with companies like Ad.ly and Sponsored Tweets growing in use. It’s so clever. I set up an account with these companies as a test, and even had companies willing to pay me well over $100 for me to send a single tweet. That’s right: one tweet under 140 characters for over $100. While I have no plans of ever running sponsored tweets on @Milblogging, if you run a Twitter account, there’s even money to be made with companies looking to advertise.
On a side note, what’s up with Ashton Kutcher and his 4 million followers? This guy is killing it on Twitter. I just can’t believe millions people find tweets about beer bong and tattoos of his face that interesting.
Damn, really makes me think I need to step up my game a bit.
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The DoD announced the latest developments of the military in the social media world, with the January launch of a blog that highlights the importance of science and technology to military operations. The blog’s name: Armed with Science. Here’s what the DoD had to say about their newest adventure in the blogosphere:
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18, 2010 – Science has seized the popular imagination. There are magazines, popular books, Web sites, webcasts, blogs, documentary films, and even television channels devoted to science and technology.
The practical applications of science and technology also can be found in almost every aspect of military operations, a topic that is discussed in great detail in the award-winning weekly webcast "Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military," produced by the Defense Media Activity.
The popularity of the Armed with Science webcast in its first year has prompted the Defense Media Activity to expand its on-line presence. A new Armed with Science blog, http://science.dodlive.mil, premiered in late January. The new blog includes articles, archived webcast episodes, transcripts, images, and videos.
"Expanding into the blogosphere will allow us to develop a dialogue between our listeners and the scientists, engineers, operators and administrators who are involved in DoD science," said Brian Natwick, general manager of The Pentagon Channel and acting director of DoD’s Emerging Media Directorate. The new blog will provide a better forum to highlight the critical role of science and technology in military operations, Natwick said, while demonstrating how research conducted to meet military requirements often benefits society as a whole.
According to the story, science isn’t just for scientists anymore. I’m actually pretty excited about this site so I can finally get answers to some of my unanswered questions like, “What really goes in to MREs?” And I mean, honestly, how is it that road marches in the Army are uphill, both ways?
Science, folks. Science.
Read the entire DoD story here.
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Lance Corporal Adam Wiles, of 2nd Battalion, the Yorkshire Regiment, is working with the Operational Mentoring and Liaison Team (OMLT) a unit that trains and mentors the Afghan National Army in the Babaji area of Helmand province.
Read the entire story here.
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And there are those who cannot forgive, who say the movie is ruined by inaccuracies, ranging from the wrong shade of uniform to a scene in which three soldiers run through Baghdad alleyways alone looking for insurgents.
"(No one) would go down an alley in Iraq by himself in 2004 at night. No one, not ever," writes Troy Steward, 40, a retired Army veteran of Afghanistan and Desert Storm, who panned the movie in his popular military blog, bouhammer.com. "I was amazed that a movie so bad could get any kind of accolades."
Read the entire USA Today story here, then pay Bouhammer a visit and share your thoughts on his blog.
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My good Military.com pal Andi gave me a tip on a story today that ran on Army.mil about the Commanding General of Fort Irwin/NTC, Brig. Gen. Robert Abrams who used Twitter and Facebook during a radio broadcast to take questions from listeners. The use of Twitter and other popular social networking tools by the different branches of the military is fast-growing and this story is another good example of how the Army is using it.
FORT IRWIN, Calif.- Fort Irwin/National Training Center Commanding General Brig. Gen. Robert "Abe" Abrams is a regular on 88.3FM KNTC, Fort Irwin and the National Training Center's post radio station, but his Wednesday morning appearance wasn't his usual show.
Instead of just fielding questions from callers, Brig. Gen. Abrams, who has a Twitter page himself, took questions from the Fort Irwin/National Training Center Facebook page and Twitter page, demonstrating yet another way the installation is using Social Media.
As he spoke about a wide variety of topics ranging from the value of Social Media to the current Canadian rotation and the installation's DUI prevention and awareness efforts, Brig. Gen. Abrams fielded a question from the Fort Irwin/NTC Facebook page about one of the many on-going construction projects on the installation.
A Brigadier General who fields questions using Twitter and Facebook? Seriously, what could be more convincing than this, that officers in the upper ranks support social media?? Nothing that’s what!
Unless of course during his next broadcast he tweets messages on his Twitter page like: OMG I LUV TWITTER, TTYL TWEEPS J B4N BG ABRAMS
Read the entire story here on Army.mil.
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The elder Liss arrived in Palestine as World War I was winding down and spent most of the following year guarding prisoners of war.
But it turned out that Yitzak Jacov Liss — later known to generations of Houston residents as dentist Jack Liss — was engaged in something equally momentous: serving in Palestine with other Jewish soldiers committed to the cause of a Jewish homeland.
More than 90 years later, Shelly Liss, a retired Houston doctor, and his sister, now Vickie Herzberg, have produced a translation of their father's wartime diaries, giving scholars new insight into the Jewish Legion, in which he was serving and which was organized by the British Army during World War I.
The diary, translated from the original Yiddish, eventually will be posted on the Web site of the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
Read the entire story here.
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