DoD: $42,000,000 to influence Social Media
1–10 of 25 posts
Re: DoD: $42,000,000 to influence Social Media
#2This could eventually find its way into a startup's work:
1.Detect, classify, measure and track the (a) formation, development and spread of ideas and concepts (memes), and (b) purposeful or deceptive messaging and misinformation.
2.Recognize persuasion campaign structures and influence operations across social media sites and communities.
3.Identify participants and intent, and measure effects of persuasion campaigns.
4.Counter messaging of detected adversary influence operations.
Will the resulting research be released to the public? Are there other sites where one can follow gov sponsored r&d related to the web and software development?
Great find, thank you.
Re: DoD: $42,000,000 to influence Social Media
#3Does this remind anyone else of a Faustian contract?
In all seriousness though, I'm not sure how people would react to social media sponsored by the DOD - regardless of their actual intentions.
Re: DoD: $42,000,000 to influence Social Media
#4This is small potatoes, a line item in a marketing budget that includes things like staging exercises to serve as backdrops in Hollywood movies (in exchange for tight control of the portrayal of US armed forces in said movies), and recruiting offices in every US city. It would be surprising if an organization that size didn't spend that much on social media.
Re: DoD: $42,000,000 to influence Social Media
#5Sure, I mean you need a good manual on how to use all that persona management software effectively.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/49137822/USAF-RFP-BLOG-WARS-PERSON...
Re: DoD: $42,000,000 to influence Social Media
#6Your local police department would probably be interested in this technology as well:
"Ottawa police are trying to come up with ways to better tap into social media sites in the hope that they can get the jump on flash robs like this. In the meantime, they want anyone who's seen this videotape and knows any of the suspects to give them a call."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/08/02/ottawa...
Re: DoD: $42,000,000 to influence Social Media
#7Does this remind anyone else of a Faustian contract? In all seriousness though, I'm not sure how people would react to social media sponsored by the DOD - regardless of their actual intentions.
Hmm? The DoD would obviously go to Facebook/reddit (maybe HN for selected topics, but we're small); they are not that stupid.
Re: DoD: $42,000,000 to influence Social Media
#8I can't find the link, but I also remember a Puppet Master project where 5 guys could control the online personas of 50 guys and slowly shift the center of the conversation in any direction they wanted.
I am sure that the FedBizOpps would get integrated with Puppet Master.
I am so glad that these psyops tools will only be used against bad guys.
Re: DoD: $42,000,000 to influence Social Media
#9Um, I might be missing this, but I don't think we're interpreting this correctly. The contract title is Social Media in Strategic Communication, which implies that they're looking at integrating social into their military communications, not creating DoD Facebook profiles or trying to influence public sentiment on Twitter.
Re: DoD: $42,000,000 to influence Social Media
#10On the topic of government 'spin' in social media, I highly recommend the book The Net Delusion by Evgeny Morozov.
He goes into detail on how different government organizations censor or spin different types of media, and how the viewpoint that 'everything should be completely open' is rather naive.