Posted on 05/13/2014 5:13:08 AM PDT by SLB
Still using email? You might already be behind the curve.
Despite the fact that the Defense Department is well into a broad transition to defense enterprise email – with the Army fully migrated, the Air Force partially moved and several Pentagon executive offices on board – at least one top defense official believes email is on its way out.
However, that does not mean it’s already known what comes after email.
“I’m not sure what the medium is going to be, that’s what we’ve got to build now,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency. “But I’d suggest if we’re still using email [in five years], I think that from a collaborative perspective and also from a social media perspective, that’s not the right means.”
Hawkins spoke as part of a panel of executives in a press briefing at the DISA Joint Information Environment conference in Baltimore, Md., May 12.
Already, several new modes of communications are used across DoD and the military worldwide. The end of email might be inevitable when you factor in the today’s young sailor, soldier, airman or Marine – a generation brought up in the era of instant messaging, chat, text and social media.
“Part of it is moving from a single tool or single capability into an integrated suite of collaboration capabilities,” said Jennifer Carter, DISA component acquisition executive. “So we really want to evolve [past] just, what’s the next generation of this one capability, but really to an integrated suite where people can choose the capability that’s appropriate from them…and they can integrate seamlessly between one to another and really increase the scope of collaboration.”
It may be that instant communication and collaboration is an organic shift for those looking to work together with mission partners who may be thousands of miles away, others pointed out.
“In cyber you’re already seeing the adoption of technology that will allow you to establish a community based on what you’re working on,” said Mark Orndorff, DISA program executive officer for information assurance and network operations. “Collaboration isn’t based on who you happen to be sending and receiving email with; it’s based on who has a common interest in the activities you’re working on today. I think that’s going to be broadly adopted as part of that set of tools we’ll use in the future.”
Overall, the goal is to provide official – and secure – channels for information-sharing that hew closely to what users are doing every day outside the office. That includes the ability to do nearly anything on a mobile device that can be done on a traditional computer.
“In addition to coming up with a variety of toolsets, whether it’s IM or social media, the reality is taking advantage of mobile devices and being able to take advantage of capabilities on the move in whatever environment you’re in,” said Dave Bennett, DISA CIO. “As we go forward the reality needs to be that the functionality needs to be seamless across platforms.”
Great. Now I can swap my 40-75 daily emails for some popup that demands immediate attention from somebody who thinks they can manage my time and workload better than I can. I’m glad I’ll retire soon.
TC
““I’m not sure what the medium is going to be,...”
As long as it’s not a short medium at large!
Telepathy!
Sounds expensive
Preferably something that’s untraceable and not saved anywhere.
Eliminates the need for shredding, redacting or disk-wiping at some later date...
Most government officials dream of a communication sytem that leaves no record or audit trail.
The main reason cell phones aren’t allowed in military facilities is because of their recording capabilities, audio, video, photos. This policy would either have to be rescinded, or all new devices developed...sort of like going back to walkie-talkies. With no email, how would they communicate with non-military entities?
Lordy. Reminds me of the whizzing contests I would get pulled into by research staff. With half the staff having root privileges, it was kind of hard to prove who struck John. I recall a particular shoot out where I was suspected of deleting emails (I was sys admin) in a particular spat between personalities. I produced a backup tape of all the email, including those ‘missing’. Yes, it was like herding cats and whiny little girls. Yeah, I spent most of my time un-doing what the researchers did (Oh, did I do that?) I called it job security.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question410.htm
If I was good I could just post the image.
It’s political gobbled-gook. Like development of cuisine-grade MREs and self-deploying vehicle camouflage systems that soldiers have been told of for the last 30 years.
Internet-based social media functions cannot be integrated into closed, secure networks without greatly compromising security and forfeiting NSA PL-4 and above accreditation.
DoD secure communications should not be held to Twitter and Facebook OMG! information sharing standards.
“and the civvie one I bought doesn’t work very well.”
Why are you buying your own CAC reader? They should be provided or recommended by your IT department. Readers have to be matched to use appropriate software requirements of the authenticating server.
There’s probably a webpage on your unit’s portal describing CAC requirements for off-site mail access. If you’re having these issues onsite, well, that’s a bigger issue.
I’m in a small Cav Guard unit, so we don’t have nearly the same support as active duty or larger/hq units do. They’ve been trying to buy everyone readers, but it hasn’t happened for about a year now. And I did buy one of the models recommended on the .mil website.
I initially got it working when I first installed it (on Firefox), but maybe a month later, with no major changes, the reader won’t work with Firefox, IE, or Pale Moon. Varying issues between them all.
I can still get into AKO/ALMS/etc using a username/pass, but the new Enterprise Email requires CAC access, so it’s unavailable to me. Sigh.
Anyone speaking like this should be caned.
That'd be great.
bravo !
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