U.S. Army declares War on Facebook – milBook

“Privacy is no longer a social norm” according to Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg but it seems to be the driver of one of 2010’s Social Media trends. As experts predict Niche Social Networks, especially those with strict privacy guidelines, will expand in 2010. In contrast to popular platforms like Facebook or MySpace which are accessible for the whole public, these special interest networks often connect an exclusive circle of members. Confirming this trend Justin Filler, deputy director of the US Army’s MilTech Solutions office, points out that Social Media already plays an important role in the Army’s external and internal communication efforts: “We are actively engaged across the DOD (Department of Defense, the author) with social media and Web 2.0 projects and are always looking to integrate where possible if the audience is appropriate”

Besides its extensive existing Social Media efforts mainly targeting on community building for the troops, public support and recruiting new soldiers; the U.S. Army recently formed another “Social Media force”. Its new Facebook-like platform called “milBook” has reached 18,000 users since its launch in October 2009. milBook aims at making internal discussions and the sharing of sensitive information easier and safer. Since army-related topics have been discussed through potentially insecure emails, chats, wikis and blogs offering a centralised secure environment seemed to be essential. Therefore milBook is protected by the Department of Defense’s built in firewall and is only accessible for registered Army members.

Surprisingly, not only milBook’s layout but even its functions are similar to those of its big brother Facebook: Members can create discussion threads, working groups and exchange ideas on Army related topics. As part of the milBook program, several military and government programs have implemented presences for their internal communities as well. This allows users to ”find professional working groups on various programs and efforts and join within seconds”, said Todd Miller, an Army contractor.

During a presentation at Social Media for Defense and Government Dr. Michael Wertheimer, technical director at the National Security Agency (NSA) gave an example how collaboration paid off using the Defense Intellegince’s own Social Network “A-Space”: NSA Analysts were debating if a photo of a Chinese submarine was fake or not. None of their efforts, neither lighting nor wave analysis leaded to any answer. After putting it online, one user with an amateur interest in photography exposed that the photo showed slight imperfections that were clear signs it has been touched up in Adobe Photoshop. While experts might have come to a similar result after an intensive analyse the NSA was able to find an answer much faster because of an outsider’s observation.

Although the U.S. army emphasises: “We prefer to categorise our sites as professional networking rather than social” (Filler), the overarching need is still the same: collaboration with individuals you might not have seen or know.

Therefore milBook is just one part of the larger project milSuite forming the Army’s combined Social Media Forces:

milSuite Contents:
milBook – Facebook like social network for internal collaboration, working groups
milWiki – Store and update field manuals like Wikipedia
milBlog – Blog that shares news, photos, ideas and insights in real-time

Beside the advantages of faster collaboration and a quick knowledge exchange security questions still remain since the past has shown that social networks and governmental services have been goals for hacker attacks. Nevertheless, Social Media Marketing is faced with evaluating the upcoming chances (hopefully a second blog article will do this) of Niche Networks like milBook. Accessing these exclusive specialist networks and overcoming their external barrier (legally!) seems to be highly attractive for advertisers as this might offer unique competitive advantages. As the health and military are drivers of this Social Media development related industries like finance, insurance or healthcare should have a closer look at the chances these networks allow them.

Images by vincealongi.

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