Municipalist

Go Army, beat Ashton Kutcher

The Army is Tweeting. And establishing a strong presence on Facebook.

"We know that our ability to share the Army story is shaped by how we tell it and where we tell it," said Lt. Col. Kevin Arata, who heads the Army's new Online and Social Media Division, to Stephanie Gaskell of the New York Daily News. "Using social media platforms allows us to tell our story where we know people are at and are listening." And: "We'll see where it goes," Arata said. "We're not fearful of what's out there. We really want to see what the world has to say." Gaskell's piece details the Army's efforts to attract more followers on Twitter than alleged actor and professional celebrity Ashton Kutcher.

Official Army story here. And here is the Army's brand new official blog, called Army Live.

Photo is from the Army's Flickr site: U.S. Army 1st Lt. Steve Smith talks on the radio near the scene of fighting between Iraqi security forces and renegade members of the Sons of Iraq in the Al-Fadhel neighborhood of eastern Baghdad, Iraq, March 29, 2009. Smith is assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. James Selesnick.

Navy CIO blog needs to be updated more often

A good blog here from the Department of the Navy Chief Information Officer. But a decently-written mini essay once a month does not an effective blog make. Blogs work best when their publishers understand they are conversation starters, contributors, and inciters. Get the ball rolling, and keep it rolling. When it stops, you often lose your audience community.

By the way: Is anybody at the Pentagon, or anywhere else, blogging about this?

Somebody should be.

Army Corps of Engineers: We've got issues. Or somebody does

At the Army Corps of Engineers Web site, very busy with plenty of Mississippi River floor updates, a prominent link is labeled "Chief of Engineer's Blog," called, apparently, "Corps-e-spondence." The problem is when we clicked on it with Internet Explorer, we are taken to this message:

"There is a problem with this website's security certificate. The security certificate presented by this website was not issued by a trusted certificate authority. Security certificate problems may indicate an attempt to fool you or intercept any data you send to the server. We recommend that you close this webpage and do not continue to this website."

We are not technical experts. So this may not be as bad as it sounds. But we wonder why whatever is going on is not fixed. Right away.

Here is Reuters on the Corps-e-spondence blog launch.

Update: We were able to get to the blog using Safari, on a Macintosh. And this is a blog that is doing some things right. We are going to take a look more extensively at a later time. We still do not know why our Internet Explorer for Windows XP cannot get us there.

Three new options make live streaming video simple

Can you think of plenty of public sector applications for streaming live video across the Web? Especially when it is this easy? Ustream.tv has been busy doing great work connecting military families. Post I.T. blog has the lowdown on another way to use Ustream:

It's also been used as a way for companies to calm down angry customers. An example of that happened Wednesday night, [co-founder] John [Ham] told me. When Digg, the site that rates articles based on their popularity, made changes to the way content is ranked, angry Diggers took to Ustream to express their disappointment. Once [Digg] founders Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson heard about the rebellion, they tuned into the live broadcast and started a conversation with their users. Kevin and Jay explained the reasons behind the Web site changes, averting a strike by some of its most devoted users.

And one more Ustream show on the way: David McCullough live teaching some history on Feb. 13. Also: Here is Post I.T. on Seesmic, another video network, called the "Twitter" of social media. And here is PC World Canada on OoVoo, an inexpensive video conferencing tool that for now is free.

Major Andrew Olmsted, rest in peace

"I write this in part, admittedly, because I would like to think that there's at least a little something out there to remember me by. Granted, this site will eventually vanish, being ephemeral in a very real sense of the word, but at least for a time it can serve as a tiny record of my contributions to the world."

Major Andrew Olmsted, United States Army, died Jan. 3 following an ambush in Iraq. The career soldier blogged at the Rocky Mountain News. News story here. His blog still reads that Major Olmsted's "mission is to teach members of the Iraqi Army how to defend their country and provide security for their people. Major Olmsted is a veteran blogger and he is determined to make a difference in Iraq."

Major Olmsted left a long, powerful letter to be made public in the event of his death. A fellow blogger has it here:

If there is any hope for the long term success of democracy, it will be if people agree to listen to and try to understand their political opponents rather than simply seeking to crush them. While the blogosphere has its share of partisans, there are some awfully smart people making excellent arguments out there as well, and I know I have learned quite a bit since I began blogging ...

Blogging put me in touch with an inordinate number of smart people, an exhilarating if humbling experience. When I was young, I was smart, but the older I got, the more I realized just how dumb I was in comparison to truly smart people. But, to my credit, I think, I was at least smart enough to pay attention to the people with real brains and even occasionally learn something from them. It has been joy and a pleasure having the opportunity to do this.

That's nowhere near the best quote, but it is included here because he references blogging. The guy was a natural writer and blogger. A beautiful tone and rhythm to his words, and a knack for solid thinking. Read the whole thing. Olmsted also asks that his death not be politicized. Done. 

'There's supposed to be a sniper cell in the area'

Municipalist is stunned, really, that Friday night's History Channel documentary "Band of Bloggers" about Iraq-based military bloggers earned so few mentions across the mainstream news media. Or maybe not so stunned.

The L.A. Times Calendar section, in a brief item, did have one insight, noting that while Vietnam is the first TV war, Iraq is the first Internet war, "with every soldier a correspondent."

The documentary reveals the power and importance to these soldiers of writing and shooting video of their daily experiences. Among the best quotes: One soldier said the importance of blogging to him felt like "a cold beer waiting in the refrigerator" after dodging ambushes amid triple-digit-temperatures.

This is from the blog of one participant in "Band":

I am tired of CNN claiming that they are showing "news," with videotape sent to them by terrorists, of my comrades being shot at by snipers, but refusing to show what happens when we build a school, pave a road, hand out food and water to children, or open a water treatment plant.

Yeah. Me too. I wonder that a lot.

This guy's blog is prominent in the piece. Several of these military bloggers went on to write books about Iraq. These soldiers are the ultimate 'government bloggers.' "Band of Bloggers" repeats several times this month, and can be ordered on DVD. Check it out. Thankfully.