Milblog Conference 2009 Liveblog - 1

I'm in DC at the 2009 Milblog Conference and I'll try to liveblog it.  We'll see how it goes...  Check for frequent updates (it's being recorded, so you should be able to hear it later). - FbL

Opening remarks by RADM T. McCreary, USN (Ret), New president of military.com. - Talking about how important it is for military personnel to have this voice outside of official lines.  "That independence is key."  Thanks the bloggers for what they are doing.  Says milblogs have contributed to making this NOT like Vietnam, where policy and men and women who served were intertwined, and thus veterans were abused.  this is diferent today, whre there is "wide respect for military personnel and military families" despite policy differences.  We see that all over the country that there is still respect and appreciation for the troops even if people are adamantly opposed to the policy.  Says he looks forward to a "robust exchange" of ideas and opinion.  "There are no shrinking violets here."

1st Panel: Back to Our Roots (Moderator, Matt Burden of Blackfive; Alex Horton of Army of Dude, Rebekah Sanderlin of Operation Marriage, TSO of This Ain't Hell, Maggie of Boston Maggie and Castle Argghhh!).

Alex - Summer of 2004 deployment to Iraq in Diyalah province.  Started with Live Journal, wrote because family hadn't had someone in the military and he used it to reach out and explain things to family/friends and make a connection across the divide.  Was concerned about policy of vetting, so he kept it anonymous and didn't run it through his superiors.  Gained notority when a reporter posted an erroneous story.  He emailed reporter and she wrote about what he said.

Rebekah - Background in journalism, married a soldier and moved to Fayetteville.  He deployed two weeks after she gave birth.  After being home for a few months, was asked by newspaper boss to write a blog for military spouses and families.

TSO - Gained notority for asking his congressman why he wasn't there to welcome him home from deployment.  Was in law school and wanted to get out, decided to join NG, which was about to deploy.  His unit held a theatre-wide record for Article 15, morale was very low & poor leadership.  To turn around morale, they did an underground Onion-style newspaper ridiculing company-grade leadership, played pranks, etc. TSO attended IVAW hearings last year to fact-check and keep them from robbing OEF/OIF veterans of their honor.  "People who do the loudest talking are those who least deserve to do the talking...I got into blogging to make sure we are not robbed of what we earned by these guys making stories."

Boston Maggie - Said to RADM THorpe, "Frank, I'm your biggest fan."  Blackfive says, "Maggie is the biggest equalizer."  Started blogging to "look smart" while talking to her sailor boyfriend.  Started reading at Yankee Sailor because there was a dictionary/translator.  Father was also in the Navy when she was little.  He would take her to see U.S.S. Constitution, which was 1/4 mile away.  Saw it as "My ship."  Discovered Castle Argghhh!, full of "Army guys." BillT emailed her and said she should start blogging.  At first it was "just nonsense," and "my sisters think you're all my imaginary friends."  She tries to pull more little navy bloggers into the bigger navy blogging family. "In reference to conversation with RADM Thorpe and complaining to him that Navy isn't handling blogs right: "Like anyone in the family, Frank needed the teeniest course correction...I got his back and nobody better mess with him."

Rebekah, do you ever get pressure from other wives because you have a bully pulpit, or requests to use your power to highlight something?:  I get a lot of email/comments, and some people seem to think I should speak for the community rather than myself.  I try to emphasize that it is just my opinion.

Alex on reductions in blogging due to regulations: Colby Buzzel's blog set the precedent for deployed milblogs; he just told the story of his experience.  I tried to follow the same thing.  "We're all in the business of telling stories...for people who can't be there...give them a window to what we do."  The dynamic has changed and Iraq has improved, which means less sensational blogs--not combat stories, but Fobbit stories.  Not as many troops in Afghanistan, so less coming from there.  As Afghanistan heats up and more go over, more blogs will probably pop up.  Thinks it's a good idea to blog anonymously.

TSO, do just share or do you affect the media and opinion?:  Our major focus is to get others to pick us up, not for traffic but because we want to get the story out there.  Not to change the big picture, but to give context to some of the larger blogs that CAN make a difference.  Fulltime lobbyist, so I know politics and can "steer people to what's actually going on."

Maggie, why do you blog?  What do you get out of it?:  Blog gives me a place to point out the things that really tell the truth about the headlines.  I get killer vacations and opportunities to meet VIPs.  Also is a ready reference for the point I'm trying to make, sometimes less aggressive because instead of arguing I can point out what someone else has written.

How did the command feel about your blog?:

TSO - When we had the underground newspaper, the BN CO loved it, probably because we mostly stuck to humor and satire.

Alex - Tried to keep my blog secret.  My roommate is the only one who knew when I started.  I was kinda embarrassed.  A few times I criticized significant events/decision without naming names, and I was worried about getting caught.  Made a post ranking the most asinine decisions of the deployment.  Was confronted by a senior NCO as we prepared to redeploy and expected to be in trouble, but he said "Good job, keep it up."  CO had been reading it and liked it.  I was astonished, because I had been so critical.  Up and down the chain of command, they said I was saying what they wanted to say but couldn't. Colby Buzzell was in my brigade, which showed they had no idea what to do with it, but I give them credit for accepting me, even with the criticism.

Rebekah, what have you had to wrestle with in terms of what you can blog from your husband's point of view?:  I have to be concerned about his privacy and not get him in trouble at work--I don't use his name or talk about his unit.  I try to keep my topics more universal to the army/military experience.  Sometimes someone in his unit comments to him about my column, which is always an eye-opener for me; I forget that people might read it.  Wrote something about army needing to do more about suicides, and "he heard a little about that," but he hasn't come home and asked me to do things differently.

TSO, have you seen a change in blogging over the years?  What has been the biggest change?:  The way we evolve on my blogs is through the way our commenters push us.  We are more susceptible to the winds of change.  Recently we've been working on issues related to desertion, etc.  We can talk about it because the army can't.  The army can't respond to (for example) Joshua Key and the ballad written about him.  Readers loved it and we were stuck on it for weeks.  Army is matter-of-fact, but we can get into the story.  I went and read his book and he said a machine gun made a trail of gasoline light up and explode a car.  Problem is the laws of physics make that impossible.  Each week is a different topic.  "We evolve so fast we're schizophrenic."

If we evolve so fast, how do we talk about getting back to our roots?

TSO - Nobody wants to hear my personal stories, unlike Alex's.  My platoon sergeant is in Iraq and doesn't know anything about blogging, so we post some of his pictures and info from him.  We can be a place for people who are deployed to share things with us.  When we're deployed,we get shot at all the time, that's not interesting but it's covered extensively.  The interesting stories like handing out 4,000 backpacks to 7,000 kids are fun and novel, but never covered.

Maggie, how does the military translate to your "real life?" What kind of reaction do you get?: If you have a reader who wants to know, they'll Google and find it, but most won't and they might skip over the rest of the story.  Some people get a little too technical, and you should dial it down a little...unless you're only trying to talk to your own people.  You need to make it accessible to CBS News, etc.

Alex, now you're a civilian.  What part of you being in college/working and still on the blog...is there a disconnect?  How does that translate?:  Sometimes I get personal on the blog, depends on what I'm writing about.  It has transformed a bit.  I do my best to talk about general policies that I'm knowledgable about.  Blog has changed focus--it's more about reintegration, the transition to civilian life.  "Classmates talk about Iraq in the most disinterested and diffused way."  I can't quite find the words, but wherever I go I don't fit; I'm 3 people--war veteran, student, and who I was before I went to war.  Wear a different hat with different people.  It's definitely a challenge of who you are.  I work in a warehouse in a very unglamorous job and Iraq doesn't really come up often. "I'm trying to fit in."

TSO - WHen I came back, I read something that said, "1st year law school is the worst year of your life," which is crazy after you've been to Afghanistan.  I've always liked clients more than law students.  Now the disconnect is even stronger.   

Alex - Tried to be quiet when topics come up, but when it gets really out of hand with misinformation, etc., I stand up and "give my 10-minute soliloquoy."  Comes up at work, too.  "You find little moments to share what's inside of you."

Attendee Jack Holt (DoD New Media) - "You can get out of the army, but you can't get the army out of you."  You are the roots, you can't get back because it's not a place.  You are part of a growth process, moving forward.  You are part of the body of experience and knowledge the nation needs.

Attendee - Blog rolls tend to freeze.  How do you deal with updating your blog rolls? 

TSO - Blackfive has been our example, we try to emulate him.  Little blogs see things first and then kick it up to big blogs like Blackfive; it's a symbiotic relationship.  We stay in touch with smaller blogs and the readers also tip us.  And if we get it to Matt and it resonates, it ends up on FOX News.

Alex - I rely on LT Nixon, and others.  "It's a web" of people and blogs who share information.  You find your way from one to another.  As far as finding new ones, it depends on how much exposure they get from others. It all falls on the big guys to disseminate attention on emerging bloggers.

What about Arrgghhh!  How do they help?

Maggie - John has given us logins to Castle Argghhh! and we post there.

Attendee--How do you avoid just talking in a bubble?  How do you keep from talking to more than just yourselves and reflective of the entire military community, not just those who share your viewpoint?

TSO - We are very bad at that.  I just assume everyone knows what a CID is because if it's the most important thing in my life, it must be in everyone else's.  We do end up speaking in a bubble.  I get radical rightwing posters and then others who just want to stir them up.  We end up speaking to only our readers.

Alex - I try to write as if someone who didn't know anything about the army would be able to understand/learn.  You can reach out to people by going the extra step to explain.

Antendee - How do you find new bloggers or motivate new bloggers?  How important do you think the mentoring process is?

Alex - It's a good thing to find the blogs that are starting out.  When I started reading Big Tobacco, he was pretty secretive.  I tried to link to him and mention him.  Hopefully I gave him at least one reader.  Hopefully some of my readers have spilled over to others.

TSO - THere's nothing more discouraging than someone who does a great post in-country and nobody reads it.  We'll link to just about anybody.  We don't have a lot of readers, but they click through a lot.  You guys at Blackfive helped us; in order to keep progressing up the chain, we have to help others.  It works both ways.  If your blog is self-contained, it probalby isn't going to go anywhere unless the strength of your writing is off the charts.  It isn't any good if you write a Pulitzer-prize-winning piece and nobody reads it.

Maggie - THe navy is slower to pick up on it.  US Naval Institute has recently started a blog with a diverse group of writers, including a US Naval Academy midshipman.  If you get connected, keep in touch.  If you're small, pimp yourself.  If you're navy, drop me a line.

Matt - Talked to Clara last night. Mentioned that I read her, in particular a piece about a Marine that insisted on calling her Doc.  That's our roots.

Lindy Kryzer - Army hasn't done well with writing guidelines about blogging.  If we wrote guidelines would that provide you topcover?  I'm not on the OPSEC side, so how can we help you work in the space you have?

Matt - MG Bergner is the first PR guy I've seen go on the offensive (when Iranian activity was killing US troops).

Alex - OPEC is the only guiding line there should be.  Haven't found a good policy yet.  "Controlled chaos" is the best way to do it; regulations will kill it.  It's self-regulating.  Other bloggers will see you and call your BS.  WHo knows better than anyone on calling BS?  Beauchamp got shut down hard-core.  There's a system out there.

TSO - What I like about the bright-line rules is that we can see if we go blazing past them.

Matt - Caldwell tried to define it as pornongraphy--you know when you see it.  Where do you see it?  How do you know?

TSO - It's different in each situation.  There are things that are labeled OPSEC that are common knowledge down at 7-11.  You have Geraldo on TV drawing maps.  And if you look at what the army's done, Geraldo is persona non grata.  If a blogger does that, his buddies are going to say, "Dude, stop blogging."

Maggie - Studies have shown it's not the bloggers that are violating OPSEC.  We're more careful than general journalists (MSM).  I had a picture on her blog that was open-source from the Navy and my boyfriend told her it was an OPSEC violation, so I took it off.

Attendee - Concerned that when Caldwell leaves Ft. Leavenworth Command and Staff College the official support for blogging will disappear because it's not institutionalized.

Attendee Troy of Bouhammer.com - Back to our Roots: Should we go back?  My thought is, why?  Why would we want to go back and not continue growing and getting larger--because people want to know?  When do we become too big?  Matt said last night he doesn't get the time to write because he has so many other things to do that have developed out of Blackfive.

Matt - How do your colleagues perceive bloggers?  Radical fringe group?

Rebekah - Journalists are liberal and see milbloggers as radical fringe group.  Print journalists started dying when radio began, then more with TV.  New media is replacing broadcast methods because there is no producer.  I think blogging is eventually going to be what's left.  Newspapers are dying, half the desks empty.  Journalists turn to the online world.  More professional journalists will be coming into the blog world.  The attitude toward blogging is evolving.  Disregarded in the early days, now looking to blogs for story ideas and info. You can do things MSM journalists can't/won't do.  One of the big constraints I have is that I represent a newspaper, but you represent yourselves.

Attendee Mrs G of Mudville Gazette - One of my passions has always been to link the smaller bloggers.  Getting back to our roots--remember that as we get bigger we get back to those guys we want to bring forward.  Remember the "long tail" of this community.