MetroStar Systems‘ CEO Ali Manouchehri was recently interviewed by Doug Beizer of Federal Computer Week in an article titled “5 Reasons Why DOD Should Embrace Social Media (and 5 reasons why not)”
Source: http://www.fcw.com/Articles/2009/09/07/DOD-and-Web-2.aspx
The article lists 5 reasons why the Department of Defense (DOD) should embrace social media…
- Web 2.0 technology improves collaboration.
- It streamlines internal and external communications.
- It costs little or nothing to use.
- It has the potential to attract young recruits to DOD.
- It’s highly portable.
and 5 reasons why the DOD should not embrace social media…
- Sensitive information is on the public Internet.
- The tools can make it difficult to comply with federal regulations.
- The technology lacks standards.
- Sharing personal information can put employees at risk.
- The tools demand a lot of bandwidth.
Expanding on reason #4 of why the DOD should not embrace social media, Ali Manouchehri “suggests allowing employees to post to public sites such as Twitter and Facebook without some kind of parameters is dangerous. For example, a DOD employee could put himself and others at risk by tweeting about his day. ‘Adversaries with poor intent can target federal workers by knowing their routine through following them through a social-media outlet,’ Manouchehri said. ‘Protecting your privacy is certainly an aspect to take into account, and the risk can be detected, mitigated and deterred by following mission-oriented rules of engagement.’ ”
In the article, reporters Doug Beizer and Amber Corrin interview a broad range of government, university and industry experts to present both sides of the argument of why or why not the DOD should embrace social media. The article provides a great starting point for discussion since both sides of the argument have valid points. You can read the full article by visiting this link: http://www.fcw.com/Articles/2009/09/07/DOD-and-Web-2.aspx