November 5,
2008: The U.S. Army is installing collaboration software (encrypted instant
messaging, chat and document transfer). Already, over 5,000 PCs have been
equipped, and the goal is nearly 50,000. This software is actually an army
version of IBM Lotus Sametime, and is called Green Force Tracking. It's all in
recognition that many troops have, for over a decade, been increasingly using
the Internet to get in touch with each other. Some of this contact is just
social, or troops talking shop. But an increasing amount of it has been
critical to the success of units heading for Iraq or Afghanistan. A typical use
is for officers and troops of a unit headed for a combat zone, to get in touch
with the troops they are replacing. This brings the new guys up to speed a lot
more quickly, and provides them with email addresses of people they can get in
touch with if they run into something, or someone, they believe the departed
unit may know about. It's this kind of contact that the army wants kept secret,
for obvious reasons. Despite warning the troops to only conduct this kind of
communication via an encrypted Internet connection, that is not always
possible. Green Force Tracking will help solve that problem, as well as making
it easier for troops to transmit classified pictures, videos and documents.
Lotus
Sametime was built to make it easy for people in the same organization to
quickly form groups, collaborate and communicate. This is yet another case of
the military adapting off-the-shelf software to a military use. The Green Force
Tracking system is also a lot cheaper to set up because of its commercial
roots, and a whole lot cheaper than building something from scratch. Green
Force Tracking will make it much easier for units to connect, and do business
with, other organizations in the army (for technical support, supplies or
information on what to expect in dangerous places)
