Another Introduction – From GovLoop.com

Hello World!

Well, that’s probably an overstatement, but as a computer programmer, that’s always the first thing we write when learning a new language.

My name is Bob King, currently an instructor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC), in the Department of Joint Interagency and Multinational Operations (DJIMO), at Fort Leavenworth, KS. Within our core curriculum, as part of our mission for Joint Professional Military Education, I teach lessons within our strategic and operation blocks of instruction. I also teach electives related to my specific areas of interest: Information Operations, Cyberspace Operations and Homeland Security.

As a result of my hobby and my formal education, I am also the Information Management Officer for my department. Translation: “The guy that provides the first line of support, as an additional duty, for 100+ users on any computer related problems – hardware or software – because the Department of Defense always under staffs the supporting IT departments.” Yea, a little cynicism there, but after 21+ years in the Navy and now 8 years at an Army installation, I have no confidence we will ever adequately resource the people that should be doing that job.

There’s something inherently wrong in hoping that someone within an organization has the necessary skills for such a critical function. I’ve not yet been anywhere that, when a leak occurred in the bathroom or a pipe broke in the galley, someone asked: “Is there anyone here that’s an amateur plumber?” Yet, in practice, that is what I’ve seen with IT everywhere.

My formal education supports that duty, my interests and my hobby: BSE Computer Engineering (Auburn University), MA Computer Resources & Information Management (Webster University), and MBA (Webster University). Prior to retiring from the Navy, I served on ballistic missile submarines and taught Reactor Dynamics & Core Characteristics at the Navy’s Nuclear Power School in Orlando, FL.

For the last seven years I’ve leased a linux box as a dedicated server at a network center in Texas that I use for a small web-hosting business. Managing that server allowed me to experiment with several different applications, as well as getting an increased appreciation for the challenges of protecting against a broad range of threats.

Recently I converted a home desktop to Mythbuntu (version of linux), setting up a MythTV desktop DVR accessible from anywhere. MythTV is a free Open Source digital video recorder (DVR) project.

Just last month I stood up Joint Chatter, a public blog for my department. As described in the About Joint Chatter page, it provides a place for our faculty to offer topics for further discussion on a wide range of topics. Those topics ranges from the highest strategic level down to the seams at the operational/tactical level, and includes regional studies, operational design, national security and policy, space operations, information operations, homeland security, civil-military relations and many others.

Recently several of my hobbies, interests and work functions have started to intersect. Throughout my life I’ve always been into computers and an avid gamer (board games, wargames & online games). Within the last few months I attended a Cyberspace Education Workshop at the National Defense University (Theme: “Enhancing Coverage of Cyber Topics in Curriculum of DoD Schools”) and Phoenix Challenge 2009 at Johns Hopkins APL (Theme: “Executing Information Operations in Cyberspace”).

At Phoenix Challenge 2009, a TS/SCI conference, who would have imagined a few years ago that the keynote speaker would be Noah Shachtman, editor of Wired Magazine’s national security blog, Danger Room? Or that several of the presentations would include references to Facebook, Twittter, World of Warcraft, Second Life and a myriad of other mainstream social media applications & games?

The ongoing convergence of cyberspace, virtual worlds and the growth of communities through Web 2.0 applications has grabbed my attention. Next month I am attending the USSTRATCOM Cyberspace Symposium and InfowarCon.

Recently I read Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations…. His book aptly describes the shift that is occurring and I highly recommend it for anyone here.

Within my own organization, I am promoting the use of blogs and other “new media” (Web 2.0). Thursday evening I was preparing a lesson for my Information Operations elective about my experience at Phoenix Challenge. As I searched for supporting information, I ran across Maxine Teller’s presentation “Social Media 101: Social Media for Government.” After adding her in Twitter, I picked up on the discussions about this weekend’s Government 2.0 Camp. I’ve also since made several other valuable contacts in the last 48 hours.

My lesson was taught in a SCIF, with no access to the Internet, so I was not able to demonstrate many of the Web 2.0 applications. The students are all field-grade officers (Major or equivalent Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines), ranging in age from mid-30s to early-40s. Out of two different classes, only a handful had ever used Facebook, Twitter, etc. After the lesson, they were so interested that many agreed to come in an hour early on Monday morning for a demonstration session in regular classroom, where I’m able to access the ‘Net. I also sent Maxine’s presentation to all of the faculty in my department, some of whom will also be attending Monday’s social media overview.

The manner in which this all occurred – and how it so aptly supported the lesson I was teaching the next day – is in itself a testament to the power of net-enabled collaboration.

Twitter: subbob
Email: subbob (preferred)
Alternate Email: AKO Address (if you must send to a .MIL address)
SIPR & JWICS: available upon request

Gmail is preferred – I can access it anywhere. My work email is inflexible, difficult to access when away from my office and hard to search. Perhaps yet another symptom of why this Government 2.0 initiative and collaboration is so important.