Allen pushes Facebook, other sites for CG leaders

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Social Media — the way ahead
CG commandant leads information revolution


Allen pushes Facebook, other sites for CG leaders
By Amy McCullough - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Sep 26, 2008 16:23:16 EDT

Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen has eclectic tastes in music, plays Scrabble online, doesn’t really watch mainstream television — although he is a fan of “House” and “The Big Bang Theory” — and, above all, is proud of his fellow service members, according to his Facebook profile.

The highest-ranking member in the Coast Guard has been experimenting with various new media tools such as the photo-sharing site Flickr, video hub YouTube and popular social networking site Facebook for the last several months as he prepared for a “revolution” in Coast Guard information management.

Allen released a servicewide message Monday that strongly encourages senior leaders to use new media technology such as “blogs, wikis, social networks and podcasts” to improve communication with Coast Guardsmen and potential recruits.

A second message outlining new social media policies was released Thursday, and more messages are expected in the coming weeks. Coasties also will see updates to the Commandant’s Corner on the Coast Guard Web site, an internal Facebook-like site, as well as internal chat rooms. Many of these new initiatives may move to dot-com sites so that everyone can access Coast Guard information, he said.

The Coast Guard Data Network, much like the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet, restricts users from accessing Facebook and has bandwidth limitations on YouTube videos, said Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Russell, the commandant’s spokesman. Those restrictions are being addressed, he added.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/09/cg_newmedia_092608w/%2e