What a great tool this blog is and what great responses we have from you. Thank you very much. We have always understood morale issues are critical but what we didn’t understand was the extent to which these tools have been able to help address morale issues. We now understand that the significant pressures brought on by multiple deployments of 12-18 months are significantly mitigated by social networking systems. Very good to know, also, are the various ways these systems are being used not only among families but also among Family Readiness Groups and associations. We also now see the extent of the confusion concerning the disparity of ability to access such sites which is perceived to be arbitrary decisions.
However, I think our biggest take-away is the blinding flash-of-the-obvious need for training as a primary risk mitigation technique for which many of you are asking.
We hear you, so please keep the comments coming while we also post on other issues.
Ability to reach loved ones, family, friends, associates while working in the field – helps with efficiency in several fields of both personal and professional matters. Personal due to several factors social network used in most cases is Facebook. Having worked in the field for more than a couple of decades, nice to receive in a timely manner notes from those whom choose complain about too much homework, ability to send a Happy Birthday is wonderful – knowing it just may be delivered and not get lost in the shuffle, receiving pics of the silly moments, or even a simple hello is always welcomed.
Best of success on your new site, keeping in touch with the troops, on listening and paying attention.
I completely agree. Our modern age of social networks offers a level of connectedness never possible before. Though social networks could never replace being home, anything that helps mitigate the downers of being away for so long is a good thing. I’m really glad a study like this is being done. Way to go.
As a moderator of this site, and someone who has read every comment posted, I just wanted to add how truly moving some of the responses to the military families were. Many of them served both as stories and input to our larger process. We are definitely incorporating these inputs to inform the decision makers in our overall process.
There is nothing at all wrong with having sites set up for this purpose and, in fact, having a government sponsored place for military families to communicate would be far better than leaving them to find other services that could be hosted in any country, run by anyone with any motives, and where there’s no oversight at all as to what is posted and who it may harm in the process.
At the core, anyone who is related to the military should be made aware of the OPSEC concerns and be trained to prevent accidental and catastrophic disclosure.
[...] what some of the risks might be (e.g. a webcam revealing someone’s location). As stated in a followup post, the next steps will be learning how to mitigate those risks and implementing training [...]
When I initially developed the post regarding the use of Web 2.0 Capabilities by Military Families, I wasn’t sure what to expect. After reading your comments and better understanding the greater impact on the Military members and families, I could only wish that thousands of your voices can be posted on this site sending a significant signal of the operational value and benefit of Web 2.0 capabilities. Let’s use this blog as a pathway to shine a brighter light on this issue.
Encourage others to speak out. I certainly will.
I’m a communications contractor and I’ve seen hundreds – maybe thousands – of military families connect, solve problems, share stories, encourage each others, etc., through military-enabled social media. I understand and support the need for security, and I think this is a both+and situation — we can build and host networks that both enable families to have video-audio-text communication with deployed troops AND maintain security while doing it. Thanks again for hosting this feedback forum.
This is a great blog! I am surprised I have never run across it. As the co-founder of a social networking website designed for the military community, I cannot begin to tell you how much excellent feedback we have received for starting our website. The families (particularly military wives and mothers) find great comfort in knowing that they are not alone, and they have found it a great place to meet new people in their area, as well as discuss matters that only military families would understand. Social media is here to stay, so it would be best for the DoD to come up with a set of security/usage guidelines for developers and users so that these tools can remain continually available.
Thanks for the forum,
Shane