[Infowarrior] - Online Ammo

[Richard Forno]

Online Ammo
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 21:54.

http://www.prwatch.org/node/8105

This "Air Force Blog Assessment" chart specifies "rules of engagement"  
for dealing with bloggers.This "Air Force Blog Assessment" chart  
specifies "rules of engagement" for dealing with bloggers.Viral  
marketing strategist David Meerman Scott says he was surprised  
recently to discover that the U.S. Air Force has its own Twitter feed,  
staffed by Captain David Faggard, who holds the title of Chief of  
Emerging Technology at the Air Force Public Affairs Agency in the  
Pentagon.

Scott interviewed Faggard and reports that his team's "mission is to  
use current and developing Web 2.0 applications as a way to actively  
engage conversations between Airmen and the general public." Faggard  
says the focus is on "Direct Action within Social Media (blogging,  
counter-blogging, posting products to YouTube, etc.); Monitoring and  
Analysis of the Social Media landscape (relating to Air Force and  
Airmen); and policy and education (educating all Public Affairs  
practitioners and the bigger Air Force on Social Media)."

In addition to a Twitter feed, Scott reports that

     Capt. Faggard writes The Official Blog of the U.S. Air Force; has  
pages on YouTube, MySpace and Facebook; helps publicize a Second Life  
area called Huffman Prairie; contributes to iReport (user name  
USAFPA); and is on Friendfeed, Digg, Delicious, Slashdot, Newsvine,  
Reddit. There's Air Force widgets. And there's even a video mashup  
contest for high schools to show school spirit sponsored by the Air  
Force.

Other branches of the military are also getting into the social  
networking game, along with other branches of government. The Army  
also has its own Twitter feed, as does the Department of Homeland  
Security, the Bush White House, and the U.S. Joint Forces Command, the  
U.S. Department of State, and the Israeli Consulate in New York.

Just a few months ago, U.S. military analysts raised concerns that  
Twitter and other online social networking technologies could become  
terrorist tools. It appears they've decided that they can be useful  
for their own purposes as well.