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Military blogging gets its marching orders

An article on Wired.com caught my eye today – the US Army is putting an end to unrestricted blogging by its members. Loose lips sink ships and all that. I decided to dig deeper.

Want to know EXACTLY how it’s going down on the front lines, from the very men and women who have taken part in the action first hand? Military blogging is nothing new, but recently, mirroring the society-wide phenomenon, it has boomed (ahem). This has caused a bit of a security headache for anyone walking around with a couple of pips on their shoulders. The result - the implementation of severe restrictions on blogging by military personnel as outlined in Army Regulation 530-1 dated 19 April 2007. The restrictions enforced in this 79-page tome are applicable to both blogging and email:

“Consult with their immediate supervisor and their OPSEC Officer for an OPSEC review prior to publishing or posting information in a public forum.
(1) This includes, but is not limited to letters, resumes, articles for publication, electronic mail (e-mail), Web site postings, web log (blog) postings, discussion in Internet information forums, discussion in Internet message boards or
other forms of dissemination or documentation.
(2) Supervisors will advise personnel to ensure that sensitive and critical information is not to be disclosed. Each unit or organization’s OPSEC Officer will advise supervisors on means to prevent the disclosure of sensitive and critical information.”

Well, that’s the nitty gritty of it anyway. And it all makes perfect sense. You don’t want some Commander Keene blogging to all and sundry that “the frontal assault was mad success, dude, we’re doing it again this Thursday, but this time we’re gonna try it from the south.”

Loose lips.

Milblogging.com is the number one military blogging site, with 3,240 registered users. It has a top ten with 365 and a Wakeup king of the hill at the moment. This blog chronicles 18 months of service by a US soldier in Iraq.

Here’s what this military blog is about, generally speaking:
- Experiences of men and women in the harshest of conditions
- Memories of fallen comrades
- Being away from home and missing family and friends
- Politics and elections
- Crazy and cruel life in the military
- Personalities met while in service
- Insurgents
- The utter boredom and day to day grind of a military career

The author describes himself as “a husband, a son, a brother and a soldier”.

For soldiers caught in inhuman and unnatural situations, blogging reminds them of their humanity and brings a degree of normality into their lives. Their stories are real and insightful but sadly, like the letters of old sent to loved ones back home, are doomed to be blackened by the censor’s ink.

Tony Lopes is a freelance writer living in Johannesburg, South Africa. Visit his site at www.hotcopy.co.za.

Blog Bloggity Blog Blog Blog

So it seems South Africans have caught on to this cultural tsunami of Web Logging. Bless. We always seem to catch the wave right at the peak, don’t we? Well the good thing is, we can stand on the shoulders of giants and outblog our blogging cousins in Brisbane, Kansas and Blackpool.

A great article about this phenomenon was published in the Mail and Guardian Online by the esteemed Mr Lloyd Gedye of Isolation.tv fame wherein he didst expound on this phenomenon.

Whether you’re the CEO of a multinational or just discovering the joys of online dating, blogging can be your best friend. Thank goodness for sites like Amatomu.com where we can distinguish the good from the really really scary. The top blogs are really entertaining and informative.

A challenge for any writer is to create a read-worthy blog. Blogging should be taken as seriously as writing a book. Don’t just throw your thoughts out there and hope that someone is gonna pick up on your great analogies and philosophies and hail you as Emperor. No, blog well if you’re gonna blog. Or your words will disappear like detritus down the cloaca of gone and forgotten.

Blogging is writing - do it well and people will read and enjoy. Do it badly and people will beat a path to your door so they can burst into your room, unplug your modem and stop your stream of unconsciousness dead in its