A couple of days ago, I posted part 1 of my interview with Adm. Allen, Commandant of the Coast Guard, regarding social media.  Below is part 2.

Q8: There are a number of units that have created Twitter accounts to release official news and connect with the public.  Is this something we will be seeing from more units, possibly as an added aspect of the PA rates assigned to the various units around the country?
A8: We don’t require field units to adopt or employ any particular tool.  We have provided some overarching policy and guidance that allows them to make their own assessment, based on their mission requirements, of how social media tools might be leveraged to improve their performance.

Q9: What is the best way for members of the Coast Guard interested in contributing to the social media outlets to get involved?
A9: As I stated in my “Way Ahead” message, “Unfortunately, it is impossible to ensure that information passed via the social media is complete and accurate, thus, the reader has to assume responsibility for judging the validity of the information.” Simultaneously, the social media environment, and the information within it, is becoming increasingly influential. Thus, we need to be aware of what is being said on Coast Guard related topics and, when appropriate, contribute to the dialogue.

As part of our social media initiative we have released two interim policy ALCOASTS (458/08 & 548/08). These give clear guidance on how members of Team Coast Guard can influence the information environment in both official and unofficial capacities. Consistent with our long-standing public affairs philosophy, “If you do it or are responsible for it, you can talk about it.”

One of the benefits and challenges to us with social media is the speed in which it moves.  The Coast Guard cannot expect to continue operating strictly in the hierarchical, top-down fashion, but must also adapt to be more horizontal and collaborative or face organizational obsolescence. This is a significant cultural change for us, but I am confident that our outstanding people possess the knowledge and judgment to be able to more efficiently monitor and evaluate the information environment they operate in and effectively and deliberately engage in the dialogue to further Coast Guard strategic objectives and benefit mission execution and support. This has to be done with appropriate consideration of information release guidelines that are designed to protect the Coast Guard and its members from any harms associated with unauthorized release of protected or non-public information, but it has to be done.

Q10: Are there plans to make use of the pervasiveness of social media for disseminating information during emergency situations?
A10: We have begun doing this in an ad hoc fashion.  More formally, our Public Affairs program is looking both internally within the service and also working with DHS Office of Public Affairs and sister components to incorporate social media into the official Emergency Support Function (ESF) 15 practices.

Q11: With the Coast Guard’s transition to FORCECOM/OPCOM and with respect to these particular commands, is the Coast Guard looking to invoke a permanent presence on the Internet with regards to continual social media updating or monitoring? I know this is currently being done by District/Area External Affiars, however, there seems an advantage of having full time (24/7) monitoring which could be done by the new Command Center structure.
A11: We are looking at including a 24/7 social media/public affairs watch in the future.

Q12: At the headquarters level, or even your direct staff, what kind of an element is monitoring the health of the Coast Guard on the internet?
A12: Just as we have always done press clippings to assess attitudes and opinions being communicated on the Coast Guard and its roles and responsibilities, we do the same assessment when it comes to social media.  This is consistent with our goal of a more nimble and adaptable organization that actively senses the environment, recognizes changes and trends, and responds accordingly in the interest of mission execution, mission support and public stewardship.

Q13: As Commandant have you felt push-back from the commands around the country to not be so involved on the Internet?
A13: There has not been push-back, but there has been thoughtful discussion about the risks/benefits of this new information environment.

The fact is, the environment has changed and we have no control over that, so the choice is: either ignore the change, which subjects our organization to all of the risks with none of the benefits; or adapt to the environment, where we can mitigate the risks and leverage the benefits.

We have chosen the latter and we have been pleased with the early results.  That being said, adapting to this environment is a significant cultural change and some people are more comfortable with it than others, but the more successes we achieve and share, the more adopters we are going to have and eventually it will be a natural part of how we operate.
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Great insight into the social media movement in the Coast Guard.  As I said in part 1, I’m thrilled that the Coast Guard is heading in this direction.  On a side note, Adm. Allen has apparently created an official Twitter account for the Commandant.  What convenient timing!

Once again, thank you to Adm. Allen for taking the time to provide us with this interview and inside perspective on the Coast Guard’s social media initiative.  Semper Paratus!

Photograph by Tidewater Muse

I did an interview in April with Adm. Thad Allen, the 23rd Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, regarding social media & the Coast Guard.  The Coast Guard has been spearheading a move into the world of Web 2.0 and interaction with the public through online outlets, and Adm. Allen has been a prominent part of that transition.  Here is the text of that interview:

Q1: Can you describe your personal social media journey?
A1: It would take more room than is available on a single blog.  The work that really got me interested was a book. “In The Age of the Smart Machine” was written by Harvard Professor Shoshanna Zuboff.  It was one of the pivotal points in my life.  I was leaving my assignment as Budget Officer at Maintenance and Logistic Command, Atlantic and headed to the Sloan School at MIT.  This book deals with the transition of the work environment and the nature of our work from a physical and material world to one where our work is virtual and invisible to the eye.  A couple of other books that have influenced me have been Chaos, Linked, and Nexus.  Social media is the merging of social networks with information technology.  I have followed both for many years so this is pretty natural.

Q2: We are focusing on leadership this month in the Coast Guard. Which USCG leadership competencies relate most directly to social media? In which leadership competencies do the internal and external social media tools hold the most promise?
A2: Depending on how you are using it, social media could relate to just about all of them, but to answer your question I’ll choose one from each category:

• Leading self:  Self-awareness and learning – Social media is all about transparency and feedback and this makes us more aware as leaders, better able to understand complex issues and respect differing opinions, and more able to sense and adapt to changing conditions.
• Leading others:  Team building – Social media tools can empower individual team members to more actively provide input to and influence the outcome of a project or decision.  This improves collaboration and information exchange among team members and ultimately results in a better final product.
• Leading performance and change:  Customer focus – The “social” aspect of this new information environment facilitates two-way communications.  This allows Coast Guard leaders to better understand the needs, perspectives and opinions of our customers and to help them better understand the reasoning behind a certain decision or course of action we may take that effects them.
• Leading the Coast Guard:  Partnering – Social media facilitates greater collaboration and provides practical ways to engage the numerous internal and external stakeholders involved in or impacted by our broad world of work.

Q3: Has thought been given to having a deployable team (perhaps as part of the DOG) of social media specialists to respond to major events and incidents? While general social media competency for all members and high level competency for PA should be a goal it seems it would be useful to have a deployable team in the interim and perhaps as an ongoing resource for high profile events.
A3: Keeping in mind that this question relates to the external aspects of social media, I think that our Public Affairs specialist are the right people to orchestrate our social media efforts during a critical incident.  Much of what takes place in the social media realm already falls in their world of work and we have seen them interact in that environment with great effect, including during Hurricane Ike, the Miracle on the Hudson, and most recently with the floods in North Dakota.  The external component of social media is an extension of our existing public affairs policies and practices and the public affairs program is taking a strategic look at the competencies and tools required for the future in terms of how it trains and equips its people.

Q4: One of the great features of social media is accessibility from almost anywhere at any time. How are we addressing the tension between security and access? This seems to go two ways – access to the public social media tools from inside the CGDN and access to the internal tools for those temporarily, such as being off duty or not on reserve service, or permanently, like most Auxiliarists, outside the CGDN/Portal. Our members engaged in social media activities as part of their duties appear to utilize the public tools through their own resources, largely on their own time. At the same time, for the Portal/Quickr platform to be fully effective it seems problematic for access to be limited to the duty period for active, reserve and civilian members and inaccessible to most of the Auxiliary.
A4: All great points and we have addressed this on numerous occasions on my blog and during different interviews.  There will always be a tension between security and access.  Our ability to exist on both the .gov and .mil domains brings with it certain security responsibilities that we cannot overlook in order to maintain the integrity of those critical networks.  That being said, we recognize the strategic and operational value of social media and have directed our IT staff to find ways for us to do both.  The new portal, which we are gradually phasing in, is already enhancing our ability to use social media for internal purposes.  We are also working on the off-duty access issues.

Q5: For the Guardian new to social media where would you suggest they start? Internal tools or external? Building competence as privately as an individual or jump right in as part of their duties?
A5: The strength of social media is that it is flexible and adaptable to your specific needs.  The first step is to develop awareness of what the different tools are and how they may be used and then consider the potential benefit they may bring to your job or unit.  Ultimately, everything we do is assessed on its contribution to mission execution or mission support.

Q6: Along the same lines, what sites/blogs/books would you suggest to build social media competence, the Commandant’s Social Media Reading List?
A6: I just published something like that as my 200th blog.  It is here: http://www.uscg.mil/comdt/blog/2009/04/200th-blog.asp#links

Q7: Do you have examples of best practices use of social media within the Coast Guard?
A7: First we have to acknowledge that our formal foray into social media is still in its infancy.  So far, the most visible activities have related to external communication.  This was done deliberately, as this was the low-hanging fruit that we could use to gain some organizational inertia.  These specific efforts have significantly enhanced our presence in the blogosphere, helping us to inform the Coast Guard narrative and we have seen very positive results in terms of our customer interaction, particularly with the maritime community through maritime focused blogs.

Some of this was already being done by Coast Guard employees on their own initiative, like JD Cavo from the National Maritime Center (http://www.uscg.mil/comdt/blog/2009/01/coast-guards-james-cavo-gcaptains-top.asp#links) or this example by Jorge Arroyo, correcting some critical misinformation on a sensitive rule-making issue (http://www.navagear.com/2008/12/new-ais-rules-navagear-gets-it-wrong/). Internally we are trying to increasingly use wikis to improve the efficiency and quality of the rule making and policy development processes.  We expect these activities to accelerate as the new portal is brought on-line and more employees begin to champion these tools.
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This interview is coming on the heels of a report published by the National Defense University titled “Social Software and National Security: An Intial Net Assessment” which discusses the use of social media in government agencies to share information both internally & with the public.  I think this indicates an important shift in the institutional mindset of government in relation to the Internet & interaction with the American people, and I’m proud that the Coast Guard is at the forefront of this shift.

Thanks to Adm. Allen for taking the time to do this interview.  I’ll be publishing part 2 in a couple of days.

Photograph by Tidewater Muse

Capt. Richard Phillips, master of the Maersk Alabama who’s been held hostage since Wednesday, was rescued late this morning Eastern time.  It’s been reported that when the pirates were sleeping or otherwise unaware, he made another attempt to escape and jumped overboard, at which point the Navy was able to neutralize the pirates.  Of the four pirates holding him hostage, 3 were shot and killed by Navy snipers, and 1 is currently in custody on board a U.S. Navy vessel.

Everyone in the maritime community is thrilled with the positive outcome.  The Academy will be having public celebrations of his release and of the safe return of the crew.  I’ll be posting about updates to this as it happens.

The recent turn of events for the Maersk Alabama has had an interesting and prominent connection to Mass Maritime.  As I reported in my last post, both the captain and the Chief Mate on board that ship are Academy graduates, as well as the mate being the son of one of our professors, Capt. Joseph Murphy.

Since Capt. Murphy is both closely tied to the situation and an experienced and well-known mariner himself, the news media has gravitated to him for answers like flies on butter at a picnic.  Since early yesterday afternoon, they have been interviewing him continuously as new information was received about the situation on board the Alabama.  During my last class yesterday around 2 PM, there were about 6 or 7 TV trucks parked on campus broadcasting, as well as reporters from radio stations and newspapers around the area.  When I came back to campus after being out last night, there were still a few news trucks at 11 PM.  This morning, there were news crews here already setting up and filming during morning formation.  As the day has gone on, crews have been filing back on to campus and setting up to resume their coverage with Capt. Murphy right here from MMA.

After lunch today I walked down towards Blinn Hall and the canal, where most of the trucks were parked, to take a look at the commotion.  I managed to snap a few pictures of the scene.

These are a few of the news trucks on campus today.  These particular ones arrived shortly before lunch, apparently to get footage in time for the noon news broadcasts.

Shown here is Capt. Murphy speaking with news crews before doing an on-camera interview.  Click on the picture to get more details.

Everyone here at MMA has been concerned for the crew of the Alabama & their families, and are hopeful that this will end peacefully.  It was a relief to hear that the ship was underway again with a sizeable security force on board, headed for Kenya.  Still, seeing familiar names and images of places around campus on national news networks has been an odd & exciting sensation.  There was a lot of pride and positive energy around campus when we heard that Mass Maritime graduates successfully retook their ship from pirates.  This has certainly been an unusual couple of days.

If you’d like to see the rest of the pictures I took this afternoon, you can view them on Flickr.

For those who may not have heard yet, or do not have full details, the American-flagged ship Maersk Alabama was hijacked early this morning off the coast of Somalia by pirates.  The ship carries a crew of approximately 20 American citizens, of which are graduates of Massachusetts Maritime Academy.  The Chief Mate aboard the ship, Shane Murphy, is a 2001 graduate as well as the son of Capt. Joseph Murphy, a professor here at the academy and very prominent figure in the maritime industry for his contributions to education and safety at sea.

Here are the highlights of the situation, up to this point:

• The ship was attacked by pirates early this morning, which the ship’s crew tried to fight off for about 5 hours
• Once unsuccessful at repelling the pirates, they locked themselves in the steering gear room of the vessel, effectively hiding from the pirates
• The crew managed to overpower one of the four pirates aboard, taking him as their own prisoner.
• The remaining pirates took the master of the vessel, Capt. Richard Phillips (also a graduate of MMA), as prisoner and retreated from the vessel using a lifeboat from the ship, and taking Capt. Phillips with them
• The crew of the Alabama negotiated a release agreement, to hand over the pirate they captured in exchange for their captain.  The crew provided the captured pirate, but the other pirates reneged on the deal and kept Capt. Phillips hostage.
• The crew has been attempting to negotiate the release of the captain using any other means aboard the vessel, such as food, with no success.
• The U.S. Navy was alerted of the incident when it happened, and has dispatched a destroyer, the USS Bainbridge, to aid the Maersk Alabama.  They were more than 200 miles from the Alabama when they received the distress call.  They have since arrived at the Somalian coast, where the captain is being held.

There is no word yet on the status of the captain, but earlier today the Second Mate on board the Alabama said that the captain had a ship’s radio with him and was maintaining contact with his crew.  Shane Murphy is currently commanding the vessel.

Capt. John Konrad over at gCaptain has been maintaining an excellent live blog post with updates to the situation.  You can find that post here.

As a result of Capt. Murphy’s son being on board the ship, Mass Maritime’s campus has been flooded with media crews today, interviewing Capt. Murphy and doing live reports from campus.  A number of cadets were either interviewed or shown in footage aired on TV, which is said to be airing on Good Morning America (and possibly other shows) tomorrow.  Keep an eye out for that, as well as new developments to this story.

Please keep the crew and their families in your thoughts as they go through this ordeal.

As most people are fully aware, piracy has become a major issue recently, particularly off the coast of Africa.  Numerous merchant vessels have been attacked and hijacked, left vulnerable to these attacks by crews that are at a disadvantage from lack of effective defenses.

Mass Maritime has recognized this problem, and yesterday gave training to 6 cadets, with the help of the Bourne Police Department, in handgun firing.  The Cape Cod Times has the full story, which you can find at their web site.

Voice your opinion: should merchant vessels carry firearms on board to defend against pirates?  Should this become a required part of licensing?  How does this fit into merchant mariner training?  Leave your comments below.

I’m writing this with less than 12 hours until we arrive at the State
Pier, and prepare to disembark the T.S. Kennedy for the last time on Sea
Term 2009. Captain’s Inspection is finished, and all that remains is
packing personal gear, doing a final cleaning of the holds, and manning
the rails. A general feeling of excitement, relief, and accomplishment is
very noticeable throughout the ship.

Our current plan keeps us on track for arrival at the pier at 0743. We’ll
be transiting the canal twice on Sunday morning, once going Eastbound, and
once going Westbound. We pick up the pilot on the Buzzards Bay end of the
canal around 0400, head East through the canal to Cape Cod Bay, turn
around in the Bay, and then head West to the State Pier. I’ll be on watch
0000-0400 tonight, so I won’t be on the bridge during either canal
transit, but I may find a place to put the SPOT for the trip. Otherwise,
you can track us on www.marinetraffic.com either by searching for the
vessel name, or by monitoring the map in the canal area.

Based on our trackline on the ECDIS, we won’t have cell service much
tonight, so I wouldn’t expect to be able to talk on the phone with your
cadet until tomorrow morning. As a reminder: SeaWave accounts should be
cancelled after cruise is over to avoid paying the $5 monthly minimum fee..
This can easily be done either onboard the ship while we’re still
underway, or at home by going to http://my.seawave.net and logging in with
the username and password from the ship. If your cadet has been using
SeaWave this trip, I’d recommend checking with them to see if they
cancelled their account while on board.

On a personal, and somewhat bragging (at least I admit it) note, I am the
recipient of the Master’s Award for the second year in a row. My room
mate, 3/C Joseph Connor, is also a second year recipient, which is pretty
cool. Congratulations to Joe and all the other Master’s Award cadets.

I’m going to sign off for now (for the last time on cruise), and go pack.
I’ll do a final “summary of cruise” post once I get home and can add some
pictures and other extras. I’ve enjoyed maintaining the blog again this
year (however less frequent than last year the posts were), and hope that
you’ve found it informative and entertaining. See you all in a few short
hours!

For the past couple of days we’ve been in rough weather which has kept the
ship rolling and pitching almost constantly since Wednesday. This is the
first legitimately rough weather we’ve had on cruise, so it’s been
exciting.

The most interesting and hilarious part of rough seas aboard the Kennedy
is being in the mess deck. when we take big rolls, people and food go
flying in all directions – sliding across tables, crashing into each
other, falling over with full trays of food in hand, etc. Last night
there was a freshman who lost his balance right by the end of my table,
fell over the end of the table and started to slide down on his stomach,
dumping his cup of orange soda all over the table!

While I usually find rolling to be helpful when it comes to sleeping, this
is too much rolling to facilitate good sleep, and in fact nobody is
getting much sleep at all. Most people are woken up throughout the night
from rolling into the wall in their rack, or pushing up against the safety
strap on the outside.

I’m enjoying it, despite some of the inconveniences it causes. I find
that one of the strangest feelings associated with this weather is having
to make an effort to climb down a flight of stairs.

Everyone is looking past the rough weather at this point, and focusing on
finishing exams. Today is exam day, the final hurdle in completing
cruise. I have the practical portion of my final at 1400, about an hour
from now. Once I’m finished with that, I’m 100% done with all my cruise
requirements. I’m pretty excited for that, to say the least.

I’m going to sign off for now and go get ready for my practical final. I
have a few guest posters lined up, but they seem to be taking their time
writing their posts, so hopefully I’ll get those tonight or tomorrow.

This morning around 0900 we departed St. Thomas, turned north and started
heading back to Massachusetts. My division is on the Alternate rotation
today and tomorrow, though I’m not on the support bill today, which means
that I was able to watch us leave St. Thomas. I then indulged in a
morning nap, a first for me this cruise.

Now that our next port of call is the State Pier in Buzzards Bay, everyone
is expressing the same sentiment: “Are we there yet?” along with
discussions about when people think it will start getting cold again, when
we will get cell service again, and the first thing they’re are going to
do when they get off the ship.

There are other signs that cruise is drawing to a close in day-to-day life
on board the ship. Ice cream is more regular in the cadet mess cooler as
the foodservice personnel try to use some of it up, which everyone is
enjoying (I’m not eating it though, as I have a superstition about ice
cream from the cadet mess cooler).

The current rotation is the second to last one of cruise. Wednesday will
start the very last rotation, for which I will be on maintenance. After
that, we have final exams, and then we’re done with cruise!

Unlike last year, we won’t be anchoring the day before transiting the Cape
Cod Canal en route to Mass Maritime. New regulations prohibit discharging
gray water in Cape Cod Bay, which we have to do prior to arriving at the
pier. As a result, we’ll have to stay outside Cape Cod Bay until we are
preparing to transit the canal. I’m not sure how good the cell coverage
will be for us that day, but I’m sure that we’ll have it enough that the
weather decks will be lined with people on the phone.

I’m going to sign off for now and head to bed, as I have laundry watch
0400-0800/1600-2000 tomorrow. I have a few guest posts lined up to post
this week, now that things are dying down a little around here. Keep an
eye out for those in the next few days.