This post at Chap’s is pretty interesting. Swabbie Chap and Army Major John from Miserable Donuts worked together to get some ideas on Afghanistan onto the desk of a resident three-star.
With the Pentagon in the middle of all these “miblogs, good for the war? bad for the war?” debates, this seems to be an unforseen bonus. The networking, that is…
It works on the more mundane levels, too. Greyhawk and his wife helped me out with my first PCS by sending a great moving checklist last July.
The whole open communication lines works in with my overarching philosophy on our military, and how we can continue to maintain our effectiveness as a force.
1. Our adapability has proven to be our greatest asset.
2. The constantly growing defense bureaucracy has limited the free flow of ideas between units and services.
3. Milblogs are not constrained obtuse regulation, and can bypass the normally clogged communication channels.
Hasn’t really been tested yet, I don’t think. And there are plenty of leaders out there who are threatened by the mere thought of an idea coming from anywhere but the man directly below him. Tough. This is a new war and we’re always in need of new ideas.
Here’s how it works right now, at least in my world:
If I wanted to enact a major change in my group/wing right now, I’d have to first seek permission through my squadron chain of command. Flight Commander, DO, Squadron Commander. With really, any of those three having veto power. That’s just to get it to the group commander, who in turn will have to send it to the wing commander. Two more vetos.
And if it is anything remotely significant, the Wing Commander would have to seek out the approval of the numbered Air Force, possibly the MAJCOM. Any and all have to sign off on the proposal. And it just takes one to axe it.
Or, a guy like Chap can just email a guy like Major John through their milblogging hookup, and ensure the right ideas get to the right people quick, fast, and in a hurry.
The intelligence community needs unit bloggers for the same reason, methinks. Wonder if we could setup blogspot for SIPRNET.
More truth than poetry in that…..
Particularly since Internet-based tools lend themselves very well to collaborative analysis and forecasting techniques….the Delphic Oracle method that RAND Corporation came up with (where you ask a bunch of RKIs the same question, then analyse the answers statistically – you can get good forecasts on surprisingly litttle information) NEEDS a lot of inputs…but it is a cheap and powerful tool.
here’s a new idea for you: THE WAR IS LOST!!!!
you all are all in favor of “new ideas” but clearly have no grasp on the reality of what is happening in iraq right.
civil war? is that a new idea to you???
ugh, serious comments only please.
SIPRNET blogs…interesting idea. Unfortunately, some of us reservists without access to SIPR will be out of the loop, but that’s my problem.
I like it.
Milblogging has let me help a photog going into Afghanistan catch up with the right people, it has helped me with my paper on submarine development, I have made friends, I have helped comrades here, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and let them help me.
And once in a while I get to pass along some info to the greater public…