Social Media and Web2.0 for National Security Planners

Over the last couple weeks I sent several friends and associates a draft article I was working up on Web2.0 for National Security Planners.  I enjoyed pulling that together, since it helped me convince myself that the right thing to do is to get more senior US strategists engaged in Social Media.  There are some real security concerns there and we dont’ want all our national security efforts exposed to all our adversaries on the Internet.  But use can be made of these tools and the risks there can be mitigated so the overall benefit to the country will far outweigh the risks.

One of the folks I sent it to was Dion Hinchcliffe, President and CTO of HInchcliffe & Company (see http://hinchcliffeandco.com ).   Dion has long been a very collegial person with an open/collaborative work style.  I met him several years ago when he was giving a presentation to my old community on the then new concept of Web2.0 and have been very glad to be connected with him since.   Dion read the article and published it in his Social Computing Magazine (see http://socialcomputingmagazine.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=578 ), and I am very appreciative of him getting the word out on that.

Another online associate is Helen Thompson of AFCEA.  Helen is herself a great contributor to the dialog on national defense.  She just published an article titled “Reconciling Collaboration and Security in the Social Media Space (see http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/anmviewer.asp?a=1680&print=yes ).   In it she references my article and underscores the point I make about social media tools being a good way to accelerate good idea.

The current draft of the article is at:  http://ctovision.com/2009/01/social-media-and-the-national-security-professional/

Please check it out and let me know your thoughts/input/suggestions.