OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. - Senior Airman Zach Stanton, public affairs augmentee assigned to the 338th Combat Training Squadron, adds an entry to the Offutt Facebook fan page Feb. 17. The PA office uses various channels of communication to inform the Team Offutt community of event and issues at the base such as severe weather. Following a change in Department of Defense policy, in the near future people will be able to access social media sites such as Facebook from unclassified computers on government networks. U.S. Air Force photo by Charles Haymond

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Changes to social media access coming soon

Published March 3, 2010
By Ian Graham
Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON -- The new policy allowing access to social media from computers connected to the Defense Department's unclassified network balances the mission value of Web 2.0 tools and the need for security, a top defense official said.

Since being hired as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs in June, Price B. Floyd has made waves as the Pentagon's "social media czar," promoting the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social networking tools to spread the department's message.

Mr. Floyd explained the new policy announced recently to participants in a "DoDLive" bloggers roundtable March 1.

"This means all (Defense Department) components have been told ... that the default switch on access is to be open," Mr. Floyd said. "It's balanced with the need to be security-conscious and tells the combatant commands to continue to deny access to sites when people try to access them inappropriately."

The 55th Communications Group is the unit responsible for implementing the new policy at Offutt.

"There are many different units across the Air Force, including 24th Air Force and Air Force Space Command, that are working hard toward implementation of this Department of Defense directive. However, it will take time to make sure all information assurance protections are put into place," said Col. Dennis Lisherness, 55th Communications Group commander.

"We anticipate getting more guidance in the coming weeks and will work closely with all of our Air Force cyber operations partners to make sure it is implemented appropriately, and securely, here at Offutt as soon as we can," Colonel Lisherness said.

The policy upholds longstanding regulations denying access to Web sites with inappropriate content, such as gambling, hate crimes or pornography, he said. The new policy also keeps in the mind the importance of operational security, which he said becomes more important because of social media's reach.

"Don't say or do anything on these sites you wouldn't say or do in any other form of communication," he said. "The people here in public affairs have started an education campaign to push out both the fact that we have this new policy, and the need to use it appropriately."

He cautioned that certain caveats apply to the policy. In many areas where servicemembers are stationed around the world, the infrastructure simply doesn't exist to support high-bandwidth applications such as video streaming, he explained.

"In a place like Afghanistan, bandwidth is going to be a problem. Just because we have a new policy, doesn't mean everything's open," he said. "If we don't have the bandwidth, we don't have the bandwidth."

The new policy comes largely as a result of a culture shift outside the Defense Department, Mr. Floyd said. That shift needs to be carried over into the department's culture, he added, as young people, many of whom have grown up using sites such as MySpace and Facebook, join the military.

"I think we have work here to do at the Defense Department," Mr. Floyd said. "People who are coming into the military take all of this for granted. They can't imagine a world where one didn't have access to these sorts of sites. For those of us who are a little longer in the tooth, it's only been in the past few years that we've seen these developments and discovered how useful they can be. So we have some education and cultural shifting to do."

Along with educating servicemembers on how to use social media tools appropriately, Mr. Floyd said, some trial and error also must be part of the process. Because these technologies are constantly emerging and evolving, he explained, leaders should be less concerned about being given step-by-step guidance on how to use each application and more about finding what works best for their unit in their location.

Mr. Floyd said he's been amazed by his own ability to engage with audiences worldwide using social media to talk to people he likely will never meet in person,. The promise and outcome of Web 2.0 technology is the potential for outreach to an immense audience with relatively little effort, he noted.

"For me, this is not so much about official messaging," he said. "This is about the men and the women of the armed forces having access to these ways of communicating. Even on my own Twitter, which I would say is official, I don't communicate 'official messages.'"

The early months of the new policy will be a learning period for everyone, Mr. Floyd said. In six months, he added, a review will lead to further guidance. For now, though, he encouraged exploration of social media.

"We shouldn't be so dogmatic about this stuff," he said. "Try new things, see what works. What works for me here in Washington might not work on a base somewhere else. I would encourage people to open a Twitter account, create a Facebook page, and see what works for them and their audience."

(Editor's Note: Master Sgt. Jason Haag with the 55th Wing Public Affairs office contributed to this story.)