DISQUS

Joe Coastie · 5 months ago

I find it rather amazing that if we use "for profit" internet sites, which are not our own, that procurement law does not require us first to open solicit our requirements prior to use. Many different commands have used many different sites and all of these, well most, are intended to make a profit from our use. It would appear we are endorsing them by their use, but providing favoritism over others as a government agency.

A. Thorsson · 5 months ago

The thing is those for profit sites are free to users...if you think about it Fox News or CNN are for profit media sites but we are not going to say wait...not you can't use us on your show! You are for profit. As for open solicitations you make a good point but what about looking at it this way:
When we bid out for a contract it is who will give them the most (of what they want) for the best cost (read least amount of money). Now take out the money, because all of these sites are free...that means they need to look at the sites that will give us the most coverage while managing our man hours. Yeah they could go to ALL the sites out there (Plurk for example along with Twitter, Vimeo as well as YouTube) but which site is giving US the most visibility? What has the easiest functionality for broad use? These things are looked into before they are used.

The other thing is, just because they are using one site does not mean we are not up to using the others. And when the Coast Guard portal is eventually up and running much of this will become moot since wikis and blogs could probably shift over there.

athorsson · 5 months ago

BTW I should add, that is my personal opinion and does not represent
CG-092, or the Coast Guard's official stance in any way.

Ryan, RE: The question about moving forward...you might be surprised.
;) There is work being done to give movement to how to microblog a
case and how that fits in with press releases, as well as a number of
other things. What is hard to remember sometimes is how few people
there are doing the PA thing in the CG...and that even though Social
Media is fast moving, we can't neglect the traditional medias as well.
ESP when you consider that sometimes Twitter (and other sites) moves
faster than truth and eventually media outlets want something to sink
their teeth into!

LCDR C. T. O'Neil · 5 months ago

One of the important points to remember in discussion about policy for social media is to recognize that social media outlets such as Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, etc., are merely another means for the release of information and as such, the tried, tested and proven guidance found in COMDTINST M5728.2D regarding the release of information and imagery, applies equally for social media as it does for engaging traditional media outlets. Certainly there are specific nuances to engagement in social media and the blogosphere, but the bottom line is that if you apply the rules for release of information, your within the guidewires.
WRT Joe Coastie's comment about "for profit" sites, I can speak from personal experience that 092 has been held true to procurement regulations, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
Regards,
C. T. O'Neil
Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Coast Guard
Chief of Media Relations (CG-09222)
This is an official United States Coast Guard posting for the public's information. Our posting does not endorse this site or anything on it, including links to other sites, and we disclaim responsibility and liability for the site and its content.

Nicky · 5 months ago

I think we have to remember that the US Coast Guard is at the forefront of Social media and as such that we should be setting the tone and standard for which all the other services should look at and maybe emulate. If you look at it this way, Social media is the way to go and almost everyone communicates in one way or the other using social media of some type such as myspace, Facebook, twitter, Youtube and even blogs. Even our Commander in Chief is using the power of Social media to his advantage. Just look at his pages and you can see that he knows that the power of social media can change things and even influence people as well. Social media is here to stay and I think that people have to adapt to the way social media is infused into society.

Ryan Erickson · 5 months ago

Thank you all for commenting on this. It's always interesting to see the points of views of others who may be involved. To Joe Coastie- your question of "procurement" has been addressed several time on this site and others in the social media realm and the best answer/guess I've been giving and receiving is to the point of audience. Why create something that's already there, used by millions, and serves a purpose without the use of tax payer money. And I see your point, though I don't agree, just image what the tax payers would say if they found out we were trying to create our own "Coast Guard Social Network" at a cost of millions (and we all know it would cost such)?

Thanks for commenting.