July 10, 2006: Air Force & Blogs

Blogs study may net credible information -- Air Force Office of Scientific Research Public Affairs William, J. Sharp, Air Force Link
www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123022538

6/29/2006 - ARLINGTON, Va. (AFPN) -- The Air Force Office of Scientific Research has begun funding a new research area that includes a study of blogs.

[....] "The fact that the Web is a vast source of information is sometimes overlooked by military analysts," Dr. Kokar said. "Our research goal is to provide the warfighter with a kind of information radar to better understand the information battlespace."

Two key concepts to remember about the program are "actionable information" and the "network effect," said Maj. (Dr.) Amy Magnus of AFOSR's Mathematics and Information Sciences Directorate and the Information Forensics and Process Integration program manager.

[....] Information forensics and process integration are important study areas for the military due to the growing emphasis on networked operations. The military is a complex culture "where we collect more data than can be efficiently processed," Major Magnus said. [....]