Defense finds wikis a boon during crises

SAN DIEGO -- As the conflict between Russia and Georgia escalated into a short war in August, the Pentagon set up wikis to monitor the situation and to coordinate a possible response, a principal adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Wednesday.

During the conflict, the Joint Chiefs used wikis, Web pages containing content on a specific topic that users can add to or edit, on its classified networks to coordinate its response. They found that the tools streamlined their coordination efforts and cut e-mail traffic in half during the crisis, said Vice Adm. Nancy Brown, director of command, control, communications and computers. She spoke at the annual Armed Forces Electronics and Communications MILCOM conference here.

Commanders who used wikis during the crisis included Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and since then their use "has spread like wildfire," Brown said.

The experience convinced Brown that the Defense Department needs to embrace other Web.2.0 technologies, including social networks such as Facebook, to improve communications, collaboration and information sharing in its new Global Information Grid, called GIG 2.0.

John Grimes, chief information officer for Defense, who also spoke at the conference, said the department should take a cautious approach to using collaboration tools until it has assurances they can be secured and would not introduce malware into Defense systems.

Brown agreed and said the department should develop its own version of Facebook that runs in a secure environment.

Defense also should restructure its systems and networks to put operational units, not the Pentagon and the individual services, at the center of development, she added. Currently the four services operate four separate intranets, which inhibit collaboration and communication. The isolated systems mean that a Navy user could not find the e-mail address of an Army user, as Defense lacked a global directory, she said.

Defense must consolidate the intranets into one Defense enterprisewide system.

Brig. Gen. James Ferron, director general for information management for Canadian Forces, told the conference that the United States must develop better ways to share and exchange information with its partners and allies. For example, during his tour as NATO intelligence chief in Afghanistan in 2007, Ferron said he was frustrated that he could not integrate surveillance and reconnaissance data from British and U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles into a single system.

The United States and Canada need to ensure that their separate systems can exchange data by early 2010, when the winter Olympics are scheduled to open in Vancouver, B.C. Providing security for the Olympics will require a both nations' militaries to cooperate on security, Ferron said, as well as U.S. and Canadian law enforcement organizations, such as the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.