By Judith Snyderman

Social networkers in the military and throughout the defense department take note: A new policy aims to harness of power of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other interactive Web tools on non-classified government computers.

Last week, David M. Wennergren, deputy assistant secretary of defense for information management and technology told the Pentagon Channel what the policy means. “It says you got to give people access to the tools that are going to unleash their creativity and innovation and let them get their jobs done better and faster. And at the same time while you are using those tools, you’ve got to be thoughtful about security,” Wennergren said.

You don’t have to look far to see the value of collaborating beyond the boundaries of the organization, he added. “You need look no farther than Haiti recently to see how the use of social networking helped non-governmental organizations and the military work together to find people.”

Watch The Pentagon Channel interview with David Wennergren below:



Wennergren described many other benefits of collaboration, including, “everything from servicemembers keeping in touch with their family to the actual missions of the department.”  He added there are huge benefits derived from interacting with communities of interest that form on the Internet.

Speed of access is another bonus. “It’s as simple as when the president of the United States says, ‘Cyberspace is really important to me, and I’d like you all to watch a video on YouTube,’ that we ought to be able to do what the commander-in-chief says,” Wennegren stressed.

Despite many advantages, Wennergren noted that the new rule carefully balances the need to share information with the need to protect it. “You know our networks are under attack and it’s everybody’s responsibility in the department to make sure they are doing all that they can to protect our information and our information systems,” Wennergren said.

Under the policy commanders may temporarily limit access for operational security. And Wennergren said the policy prohibits malicious activity and denies access to sites that promote prohibited activities.

Fortunately, Wennergren concluded, this is one policy memo that he does not anticipate having trouble dissemminating to the entire DoD community. “I hear our public affairs team has already tweeted that the policy is out – so I have a feeling that this might be one of those subjects where there’s a proliferation of information about it,” he laughed.