Four Social Networks Connecting The Military to Families and Each Other
This week, Army Veteran, Michael Aiesi, launched Armed Forces Community, a social network for the troops and their families. The site is free and allows users to create profiles, showcase ribbons and badges, post videos, create blogs and participate in forum discussions. Users can also search for others based on service background and zip code. The only draw back is that the site is not linked with iLink and therefore may not be accessible to some military personnel depending on where they are deployed.
iLink is not a social network. It is a sophisticated social network analytics technology from SRI International that has been integrated into online communities used by the military. On its website iLink writes about the military’s decision to bring social networking in-house:
It was only a year ago that the military shut down access to several social networking web sites, including MySpace and YouTube, to users of the military networks. However, that shutdown was not so much a criticism of the social networking technology itself - only the public nature of those “civilian” networks. Concerned that users would share secure information like schedules or locations (for example: “Hi Mom! We’re sailing into Dubai tomorrow!”), the military opted for a “better safe than sorry” policy. They also cited bandwidth concerns - sharing videos and photos can use a lot of bandwidth and not all areas of the world have much to spare.
According to the iLink website,
iLink is being used in the military communities to help recognize “who knows what” within a community, connect members to each other, and point members to valuable content, discussions, and others who share their same interests. Those connections between members and resources are made with iLink’s machine-based learning to model the users and the content in order to facilitate the information sharing.
The military is using iLink with at least three social networks. The first one links the troops with each other and their families. The last two are targeted toward specific audiences within the military.
Army FRG (Family Readiness Group) connects Army families to the troops and also connects military personnel to each other. The site has friendly social network features such as YouTube-style video email and discussion forums. Membership to this forum is strictly limited to Army personnel and their families. Members will be verified during the sign-up process. Information is available in the FAQ.
The following forums are closed to anyone not meeting the member requirements (specific ranks within the military) so the descriptions are direct copies from the front page, which is visible.
Platoon Leader - PL connects leaders in the experience to leaders with the experience, and enables future platoon leaders to prepare to lead more effectively. By joining PL, you are choosing to participate in a voluntary community of professionals who love leading Soldiers and who are committed to building and leading combat-effective platoons!
Company Command - CC is company commanders. We are a grass-roots, voluntary forum that is by and for the profession with a specific, laser-beam focus on company-level command. By joining, you are gaining access to an amazing community of professionals who love Soldiers and are committed to building combat-ready teams.
These sites focus on the Army. If you know of sites for other branches of the armed forces, please list them here. Helzerman’s Odd Bits is always happy to give a shout out to any sites supporting the troops so if you know of a site hosted by any branch and would like to have it featured in a separate post, send details in an email to editor@helzerman.com.
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This entry was posted on Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 2:52 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
