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US Military plans Reddit-like system

Tessa Reed
By Tessa Reed, Journalist
Johannesburg, 29 Jun 2012

US Military plans Reddit-like system

For years, the US military has struggled over what to do about social media. One response has been to create dull, Pentagon-controlled versions of popular Web sites Facebook and YouTube, Wired writes.

Now the Pentagon is preparing to launch its own version of Reddit, in another small step in the military's quest to strip the fun out of everything on the Internet.

Called Eureka, the project is slated to go up in mid-July, joining a collection of other Defence Department-only Web tools that mirror popular social media sites such as Wikipedia and YouTube, Defence News reports.

Eureka will be a part of the Facebook analogue known as milBook, though the site has been designed to feel independent.

The idea is to host discussions that lead to revolutionary solutions; for example, improved training, better ways to secure mobile devices, or any other problems that plague the military and hamper efficiency.

"There are many things that the formal system misses, because not only are we working the problem, we're working the budget and policy issues that surround the problem,” Daily Tech quotes Jim Benn, deputy director of the Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate (a military organisation tasked with developing organisational solutions for the entire armed forces) as saying.

“Sometimes we need that infusion of great ideas coming in from an external source. The notion of having your idea voted up will strike a harmonious chord that's in many of us.”

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