Social Media and the National Security Professional

This is an update of an article I published last August in Social Computing Magazine (a great enterprise Web2.0 site edited by Dion Hinchcliffe).   A key goal of this piece has been to encourage more in the national security world to use capabilities like Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogs, and of course Twitter.  If you know someone you would like to encourage to use these sites please feel free to lift from this.  If you know of other sites or capabilities that deserve this sort of tutorial please let me know.

Another key goal of this paper is to enhance the security of our nation, and my thesis is that by getting more senior thought leaders into these web2.0 capabilities we can do just that.

Social Media is a term used to encompass a wide range of technologies used to enhance shared meaning among participants.  When properly used, Social Media capabilities also address the information explosion we are all experiencing.   Social Media includes weblogs, wikis, email, instant messaging, tagging and broadcast text. Popular social media services include such familiar names as AIM, TypePad, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Plaxo.

This note captures some tips and techniques for the use of social media focused on national security professionals.

First, for context and background, let me start with the analogy of traditional media and it’s still significant contribution to dialog in the national security space.  Great thinkers with something to say frequently author an editorial submission to news outlets. Examples abound, but as a reference let me point out the thought provoking piece by Mark Lowenthal in the 25 May 2008 Washington Post titled “The Real Intelligence Failure? Spineless Spies.”  Here one of the more elegant writers in the intelligence community laid out his personal views and made a contribution to the dialog on the intelligence community.   This type of article is of value in helping us collectively think through some key issues.  The article also underscores that the explosion of social media does not eliminate the need and value for authoritative voices.

Now let’s discuss how new media helps the dialog.

With new media, you do not have to be one of the leaders of the national security domain to publish your thoughts.  You can establish your own blog.  There are many services that do this. The most popular ones are Moveable Type and TypePad.  I like them both and have used both.  If you are just starting out I recommend you sign up with TypePad.  You can have a blog up in minutes, and with a little more time you can have your own domain and a blog configured with your own design.  Having a blog does not mean you are automatically an expert, but when you have something to say you will have a path to say it.

Part of the power of new media is that capabilities like blogs give more people an ability to inject ideas into the dialog, and in many national security issues more brains with more ideas can be a significant enhancement to the dialog.  But new media gives even more benefits.  New media gives others an ability to discover and comment on your thoughts.  For example, blogs all come with rich commenting and moderating features so others can share thoughts and endorse, critique, or add to your original post.  This provides a way to highlight good ideas from social media.

New media is also known for speed.  The instant your thought is published you can have it provided to others via RSS feeds, by e-mail push, and by alerts to Twitter, a micro blogging site which is also being used by a growing number of national security professionals.

To see how Twitter works, visit my site at http://www.twitter.com/bobgourley.  You will see a series of small posts made by me.  Some were automatically created when I posted to my blog.  Others were either sent in from my cell phone while I’m on the road or from my computer at home.    If you desire to “follow” me on twitter all you have to do is sign up for a Twitter account and click the “follow” button.  Then you can read those micro posts whenever they are made.  You can also find other national security professionals to follow on Twitter, and they will be able to find you as well. For example, from my page, look for the graphic that shows Lewis Shepherd and click on his head.  You will see his Twitter site. Or if you don’t remember what Lewis looks like can click on the list of people I follow and find him there.

Following feeds like this will keep you informed of key meetings, conferences and events and of course blog posts.   Producing your own Twitter feed will provide you with a way to contribute to the dialog.

Another tool of increasing use by people in this discipline is LinkedIn.  This is a site that lets users add a bio or resume and then helps them manage their social network.  LinkedIn lets you connect to others on the site who you know.  You can help out people you know who might need to meet someone you know and vice versa. This site is very helpful in learning a bit more about people before you meet with them and in staying in touch with people when they change positions. LinkedIn also provides simple ways to communicate with others, either all at once or direct person to person and I frequently hear from other CTOs via this path.  How do you get started with LinkedIn?  Sign up for an account, fill in as much of your bio as you are comfortable sharing, and follow the instructions to find people you already know and connect with them.

A site with a different but somewhat related functionality is Plaxo and I also recommend you create an account there.  Plaxo  specializes in contact management.  You can keep your entire address book there.  You can also synchronize Plaxo and LinkedIn so if one of your contacts changes their information in LinkedIn it will update Plaxo. Additionally, you can have your blog and your Twitter feed automatically update Plaxo (many readers in the national security space prefer to read blogs via Plaxo).   The way to get started here is to log into Plaxo, create an account and upload your address book to it by following your instructions.  Is that safe?  It is at least as safe as having your address book on your own computer.  I’ve never had any problems doing that.

Another key social media site is Facebook.  A growing number of national security experts are using Facebook to stay in touch with friends and associates.   It is also a good method for communicating. You can send private messages to Facebook users and can also send open messages to them by writing on their “wall”.  You can configure Facebook to display your latest blog posts and twitter
feeds.   You can join up with Facebook from their site, and then Facebook’s “friend finder” will help you find the right people to
connect to.

Now let’s continue our discussion on the article Mark Lowenthal published.  In this case, if you had an opinion on his content you could post a note at the Washington Post website, and I noticed many did.  Because the Post is an old media powerhouse they seem to publish most comments, which has the benefit of letting you see a spectrum of thoughts.   You can also post comments in your own blog.   I published my thoughts on Mark’s piece here. My blog automatically sent word to Twitter, Facebook and Plaxo when I did.  It also automatically pinged some key blog search engines so they could access my content.  Another friend of mine in the community posted his views on his blog.  Other friends on Twitter began dialog with me via that channel.  And other associates began an e-mail dialog with me on the issues raised by Mark.   So within a matter of minutes wide swaths of people were engaged in collaboration and discussion on the topics Mark noted.

Perhaps the greatest power of new media, however, is when it is used to accelerate new ideas that were not identified by one of the greats like Mark.  For example, I recently read a Twitter post from a thought leader in this new space named Jeffrey Carr (see his Twitter Feed at http://www.twitter.com/jeffreycarr)  He posted a short comment about a blog entry he wrote and said it included “3D imaging and Virtual Earth – mind blowing video http://bit.ly/3SxtdA ”   His Twitter post alerted me and I checked out his blog and yes, he was right.  I saw a YouTube video that was absolutely mind blowing and of direct relevance to others in the national security space.  And the video, frankly, could change things more dramatically and in a more positive way that Mark Lowenthal’s well thought out piece ever could (Jeffrey you rock!). So I’ll be blogging about Jeffrey and will be talking about the capability he highlighted when I attend a major intelligence conference next month.  Jeffrey’s other readers in the national security space will also be considering the significance of his posting and the result will likely be an acceleration of a capability into the fabric of the national security apparatus, thanks to social media.

Another example of the power of social media for national security professionals is in coordinating action and participation prior to conferences.  How do you decide which conferences to attend?  I try to pulse experts to see who else is going.  Once I make up my mind I let everyone I network with know I’ll be there so they can advise me of their intentions and so we can arrange side bar meetings as required. This is all so simple in the world of social media like Twitter, Plaxo and Blogs.

So a key benefit of Social Media for national security planners is to accelerate good ideas, whether they be good ideas for policy or good ideas for technology.  Social Media can also be leveraged to address the information explosion by enabling people to enlist the capability of others to seek out and bring the right information to your attention. These others can be crowds, random individuals, fields of experts or trusted friends.  Which of these you leverage can vary from subject to subject or task to task.

Is there a dark side for national security?  What are the risks of social media?  Perhaps the greatest risks are that we not fully engage in the power of these tools, especially when adversaries are not constraining themselves.   But there are risks to mitigate in our use of new media.  These include risks to the confidentiality of ongoing operations and in some cases risks to personal security.  By identifying these risks and taking steps to address them now we can accelerate the use of new media faster through the community.

I have personally encountered several other examples, but it seems we have just scratched the surface on the benefit of these capabilities to our nation’s security.  New thinkers are pioneering paths that are already helping the nation come to grips with some significant issues. With more participation by thinkers like you the contributions of social media will likely grow in importance.
So please, if you have not started engaging in social media sites yet, jump in now.

Bob Gourley
http://ctovision.com