Feral Jundi

Monday, August 15, 2011

Blogs: DynCorp Starts A Blog And A Youtube Channel!

Filed under: Blogs,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:37 PM

Very cool and it is about time. Although I do have a few misgivings about the blog itself, and this is stuff that can easily be fixed. First, there needs to be an RSS feed for the thing. I continue to see companies make this mistake, and it is just a simple little deal that makes a blog more useful. Guys like myself hunt for RSS feeds to put into our readers, and if you don’t have one then we just kind of forget about your site.

Some other ideas is to have a moderated comments section. If you check out my comments section on this blog, you will see that folks have the choice of entering a name and email, or signing in using Twitter or Facebook. This is the way to go, just because the easier it is for readers to sign in, the easier it will be for them to interact on the site. I use Intense Debate, but there are others out there.

Which is the other thing that kind of strikes me here. Who is the author?  Is it Ashley Burke, the media relations person or who? So definitely sign off on who wrote the posts, and most of all, get that individual to interact with the readership. Especially if the CEO writes a post. Blogs are great tools for interacting with your readership. And the best thing with moderated comments, is that you can filter out those who have no interest in having a reasonable conversation or who are spammers.

Some technical issues would be to have a more complete site map at the footer, and have clear links going to the DynCorp corporate page, and clear links going to the blog.  So really make it easy for the reader to know where they are at, and give them a map and clear signage as to where to go throughout your websites. An archives is important to, and put a search box on there so folks can search through your posts. Also, I did not see any tags, and that isn’t cool. All of this stuff is important to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and if DI wants to own the story about the ‘their’ company, then they need to do the things necessary that pleases Google Search.

Which along those lines, DI should also set up an official Twitter and Facebook Page. Even a Linkedin Page would be cool, although they might already have that. Either way, get hooked up on all the top social networking sites, and then link all of them together so that every time you make a post on the blog, the post automatically goes to those sites. Google Search really likes that kind of stuff, and it will help in SEO. You would really be top notch if you linked your jobs to all of those sites, and put a RSS feed on your career section.  That way, as soon as new jobs come up, folks can find out about them and jump on it. (US Training Center has an excellent jobs section, that has all of the important information and tools that job seekers like) Oh, and don’t forget about a newsletter or some kind of subscription service.  Those are very easy to set up using stuff like Feedburner or whatever.

Just some ideas, and it’s a step in the right direction guys. It is also a challenge to the other PSC’s and PMC’s in this industry. If DI has a blog, where is your blog? –Matt

 

About Inside DI
June 10, 2011
Learn more about the people of DynCorp International, our most recent company news, key contract wins, the causes we support and other fun facts.
Link to blog here.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

War Art: Will The Real Likeness Of ‘Draw Mohammed’ Artist Molly Norris Please Stand Up?

“It’s essential that we stand by her side, as a community, Muslims along with everyone else,” Bukhari said. “We should stand up to people who make these kinds of threats, not look the other way.”

Yet there’s been a “low-grade indifference” to Norris’ plight, Jackson says. Public officials haven’t contacted her, not even privately.

“Here’s a case of a wanted terrorist demanding the head of a Northwesterner,” Jackson wrote on the Web site Crosscut. “Why, then, has Molly Norris been met by the mother of all silence?” 

*****

     I wanted to post this to show my support for what Molly was originally going for with this cartoon, and that is to show solidarity with the folks at Comedy Central when they poked fun at Muhammad. Of course jihadists threatened them, and they also threatened Molly, and both Comedy Central and Molly for whatever their reasons were, stopped.  What kind of message does that send? And the Seattle Weekly should be changed to the Seattle Weak Knees. You guys should have backed up Molly and stood your ground against these idiots.

     Why do artists and media groups continue to ‘bow down and kiss the ring’ of these Islamic extremist dorks? For all you folks know, it was some 12 year old kid on a computer trying to get your goat.  I say press on and exercise your right to free speech.

    Even if it was legitimate terrorists, these guys are weak sauce. I have been making fun of these idiots for awhile now and it is an essential part of my wonderful day! lol (the Potential poster is my all time top post on the blog-go figure?) I actually want them to say something, just so I can get a good laugh and channel more traffic to the blog.

   There is another reason for why you should not back down.  Terrorism works, when you actually show fear. hint hint? So Molly, keep your name, get out of hiding, and draw Momo! Free speech only remains your right if you have the courage to fight for it. Inshallah. –Matt

Facebook Page for Draw Momo And Be Happy Day here.

——————————————————————

The cartoon that started it all.

Terror threat to Seattle cartoonist should draw response

Danny Westneat

September 18, 2010

The case of the Seattle cartoonist who used to be named Molly Norris makes me wonder: Shouldn’t we be sturdier than this?

The case of the Seattle cartoonist who used to be named Molly Norris makes me wonder: Shouldn’t we be sturdier than this?

Last week Norris made worldwide news, when it was announced she was “going ghost” because she had been put on an Islamic terror hit list.

“There is no more Molly,” wrote the Seattle Weekly newspaper, where her cartoons once ran. “On the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI, she is … moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity.”

This news was bewildering. The FBI had insisted a U.S. citizen renounce her identity, all because some radical in Yemen doesn’t like her art?

(more…)

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Legal News: Bill Shaw Has Been Acquitted!!!

     This is fantastic news and Bill can now call this his ‘independence day’.  Excellent work by everyone in bringing attention to this as well. It was so cool to see the media attention, or guys like Michael Yon just hammering away on getting this story out there. I was very impressed to see all the letters and commentary at the British Embassy in Kabul Facebook Page by friends and supporters of Bill, and every little bit counts. So thanks to everyone for getting the word out and helping out a contractor who was wronged. –Matt

—————————————————————–

Cleared Briton Bill Shaw describes Afghan ‘living hell’

Sunday, 4 July 2010

Bill Shaw said he felt “absolutely elated” but the last few months had been “living hell”

A British man acquitted of bribery by an Afghan appeal court has described time in prison as “a living hell”.

Bill Shaw, a 52-year-old former Army officer from Leeds, was found guilty of bribing officials in March.

At the time, he was manager of a security firm providing protection to foreigners. He said he thought he paid a legitimate fine.

Mr Shaw told the BBC he was looking forward to “proper freedom”. His family said they were “absolutely elated”.

The appeal court cited lack of evidence as the reason for dropping the charges.

At his trial at Afghanistan’s newly-established anti-corruption court in March, Mr Shaw admitted paying for the release of two impounded vehicles but insisted he thought it was a fine.

We’ve been sure of dad’s innocence all along and we are truly grateful to the appeal court for its decision

Lisa Lucklyn-Malone Bill Shaw’s daughter

He was jailed for two years and fined £16,185.

Afghan officials who took the money have since disappeared.

Mr Shaw, who served for 28 years in the British army and was awarded the MBE for his service, was held in Kabul’s Pul-e-Charkhi prison, alongside inmates from the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

He told the BBC he was “very, very excited” he had been cleared, but the last four months had been “in all honesty, a living hell”.

“I never thought, as an honest person with integrity, that I’d be put in this position.

“That’s why I never ran away in the first place, even though advised to. But I didn’t because I stood, and I’ve got principles.

“And I’m just looking forward now to proper freedom now and taking these chains off,” he said.

Mr Shaw’s daughter Lisa Lucklyn-Malone, who lives in Kent, said the family was “over the moon” and her father “deserved” to be released.

“He called from the court room, choking back emotion, he was finding it hard to speak, but said ‘I’m coming home, I’m free, it’s brilliant’.

“We’ve been sure of dad’s innocence all along and we are truly grateful to the appeal court for its decision,” she said.

She went on to thank people “all over the world” for their “incredible support”.

She said her father had lost a lot of weight, and was physcially and mentally drained, but the news would have “picked him up 100%”.

‘Positively medieval”

The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville in Kabul, said Mr Shaw told him it was “unbelievable”.

“He’s clearly in shock, he didn’t really know whether these charges were going to be dropped against him or whether the appeal would be successful,” he said.

Our correspondent said Mr Shaw was likely to be released within a week.

But he added the “positively medieval” and “very dangerous” prison that Mr Shaw had been held in had taken its toll.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said she was “pleased” for Mr Shaw and his family and consular staff were liaising with officials in Kabul to determine a date for his return to the UK.

“We welcome the appeal court’s decision which is now subject to finalisation in the Supreme Court.

“The UK continues to strongly support the work of the Afghan government to counter corruption and reinforce the rule of law in Afghanistan,” she said.

At the appeal ruling, Mr Shaw’s co-defendant, Afghan bodyguard and translator Maiwand Limar, had his sentence downgraded from two years to eight months.

Story here.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Building Snowmobiles: Human-flesh Search Warfare

     Sinnreich adds a psychological component. “A lot of us really know next to nothing about what’s really going on militarily in Afghanistan,” he says, “so when a schism like this opens up, we think, ‘There must be more to this.’ ” A “collective detection mentality” takes over, he says, and thousands of people start piecing together thousands of bits of information to get a bigger picture.

*****

     If anyone is wondering how I come up with this stuff, I will explain.  I will read about one interesting concept, store it away in my brain, and then when I hit some trip wire ideas that fit in with that prior concept, some ‘illumination’ occurs. In this case, I was reading about human-flesh search engines a week or so ago, and then the Rolling Stone atomic bomb of a story comes out, and I started putting two and two together.

   First, let’s discuss what each component is and then we can discuss how they fit together, and then finish up on how to weaponize the concept (if possible).  Because if you look at what happened here, the best general that the US had, second only to Petraeus, was effectively removed from his post, all because of what was said in an article and the flash fire effects of new media.  That is one hell of an attack if you could figure out how to reproduce it.

   The first part of the concept is the human desire to want to know.  And the tools we have available to us these days, give us the ability to ‘know’ what is going on very quickly.  The news cycle and people’s ability to get that news, and how it allows us to pass it on to the next guy is mind boggling fast.  It doesn’t combust like a fire, it explodes like a bomb, and new media/social media is the facilitator for everyone who wants to know.

   For example, when the McChrystal ‘Runaway General’ news came out, I had heard about it via Facebook, Twitter, newsletters, updates via email, and my RSS reader.  I also got the news via my iPhone, which means I did not have to wait until I got home to read all of this stuff. The news exploded, and like most, I passed that news on to my network.  I then got to work on posting a blog entry about the thing, because it was a big story.  And so did thousands of other journalists, bloggers, forum participants, etc.  So analyzing the whole thing kicked in instantly as well.

   On my RSS reader, I saw multiple blog posts coming up from all over about the story.  People analyzing and giving opinions, and everyone was reading everyone else’s stuff and trying to come up with the best conclusions.  Partly because they wanted to know the real deal, and partly because they wanted to choose the right angle on the whole thing so they would not look like an ass to their readers and friends. So not only did bloggers want to ‘know’, they wanted to be the ones that looked like they ‘knew’.  All of these bloggers, to include myself, were furiously going over the material as it came out over the internet.  Our business is to know, and believe me, we were trying to do that.

   That process of wanting to know, or what the professor up top worded as ‘collective detection mentality’ is the first part to understand here. We are human, we are competitive, and knowledge is power.  When everyone is fighting to learn and know what is going on, that process creates the informational tsunami.  That information wave can also do much to force an action and create a desired outcome for whomever originally intended to create such a thing.  If you look at how President Obama and the upper command reacted to this incident, it is startling.  This didn’t happen over the course of weeks or days.  It happened virtually overnight and a top general has been removed from power.

     The second concept to look at is the idea of human-flesh search engines.  This is a concept out of China that has equally startling results. If a person is made a target by whomever on a forum, and whatever act this target did was sufficient to bring on interest and vengeance, well then you have all the elements of a human-flesh search.  People want to ‘know’ why this target did what they did, they want to ‘know’ who they are, what they are doing, where they live, and most importantly, they want to make sure the target suffers for any wrong doing.

   It is that power of wanting to ‘know’ that fuels the crowd in sort of virtual lynch mob.  A prime example of this was the whole Jax Desmond affair here on the blog and forums.  When it came out that Jax was lying about who he was, this industry reacted to it much like how the Chinese human-flesh search engines turned out.  My readers were at first picking apart the guy’s lies, which was great, but then you could see on the forums that people wanted vengeance.  Folks were posting his address, real name, etc. and doing all they could to get back at Jax.  In their minds, he deserved everything he got, and each person out there was going to contribute to his demise. My point with this is that a crowd with the desire to ‘know’, coupled with the desire for vengeance against an individual they perceive as bad, can be quite impressive to watch and certainly damaging to the intended target. As a result, the Jax Desmond name is mud in this industry, and when the crowd decided they ‘knew’ enough to act, they quickly dispensed their justice.

      Now let’s put them together, and build a snowmobile.  Could you initiate a human-flesh search attack (HSA), that could create a desired result? I think you can, but only with a multi-faceted approach, and persistence. You must identify your target, identify the element that the crowd would like to ‘know’, and really exploit the virtual mob mentality if that target has done something that would be considered immoral. Your HSA strategy should strive to mimic other incidents that showed all the hallmarks what is mentioned in these two articles, and the examples I have provided. Most importantly, persistence is key, because you cannot say for sure if your HSA will work the first time out.  It would take a constant attack from multiple angles, to be successful. It helps to throw the match in the right places though, and that is the key.  The forest fire analogy fits well with conducting HSA.  If you can keep shooting flares into pockets of unburned fuel, from across the canyon, eventually you will get one of the pockets burning and they will start the fire that you wanted to start.

   The other thing about Human-flesh Search Warfare is defending against such a thing.  Yet again, I look at the forest fire fighting analogy for the defense.  You must create fire breaks to defend crucial aspects of your forest.  Or in terms of what we are talking about here, you must protect yourself or your principle by insuring you have the appropriate defenses in place.  Having journalists from Rolling Stone hanging out with you for a couple of weeks is probably not a good idea–no buffer there.  Making wild and false claims online about your company or your personal actions, would also not be a good idea–not much buffer there either.

     But most of all, you need good intelligence that focuses on you and the enemy.  ‘Know yourself, know your enemy’ as Sun Tzu would say.  Because if you know yourself, you will know what weaknesses, immoralities, etc. that the enemy might possibly use against you in this kind of attack.  Knowing your enemy will help you to figure out their intentions towards you or folks like you, and how they like to conduct HSA. You should also stay up to date with technology and ‘knowing’ yourself. Use the same tools and resources that your enemy uses, if you want to really know what he knows. You can also try to copy your enemy’s strategy and tactics, and add one little technological or operational piece to that package to get an edge.  If your information officer, or whomever is assigned to be your virtual body guard cannot do these basic things, then you should look at firing them. Because this is something any good practitioner of strategic communications or new media should be wary of and try to understand, so they know how to best build that fire break or place the match in the right patch of fuel in the forest.

   Well, let me know what you think.  If I am missing something here, or you have something to add to this stew of ideas, I would be interested to hear what you got.(be sure to read both stories below because they are relevant to this post) –Matt

New media too speedy to outflank

China’s Cyberposse

Edit: 6/25/2010- I wanted to add one more human-flesh search warfare case to this, for further thought.  Wikileaks is an excellent example of the power of human-flesh search, and what it could do to the war effort.  Some Army Intel kid leaked the videos anonymously to Wikileaks, and that was all that was necessary to spark the human-flesh search engine. Media was linking to the videos and site, and overnight, war leaders and politicians had to deal with this.  When that came out, it exploded as well.  But if you look at Wikileaks, what was the element about it, that would attract that Army Intel kid to contribute in the first place.  That is why this is such an intriguing idea to talk about.

——————————————————————-

New media too speedy to outflank

By John Timpane

Jun. 24, 2010

It began as a scattering of acid remarks within earshot of a Rolling Stone reporter. But – thanks in large part to Twitter, the Web, and cable news – barely two days after those remarks were disclosed, a media firestorm ended Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s tenure as commander of U.S. and NATO Coalition Forces in Afghanistan.

Fast, overwhelming, decisive: It’s a case study in how tightly connected 21st-century media can whip a story into a full-on tsunami, with startling consequences for individual careers and national policy.

“Rolling Stone broke the story, but it was Twitter that got the story rolling,” says Aram Sinnreich, a media professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. “The peer-produced social media are doing to cable-news networks what cable news did to broadcast. We’ve gone from the one-day news cycle to every hour on the hour to second by second.”

Noah Shachtman, a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution and a blogger at Wired magazine, says: “The fact so many of us are networked together enabled the information to spread speed-of-light fast. That turned what might have been a slower-burning flame into an instant conflagration.”

(more…)

Friday, June 4, 2010

Afghanistan: Contractor Bill Shaw Being Held In Violent Afghan Jail, Family Fears For His Life

     Boy, this one stinks and I feel for the friends and family of Bill Shaw.  I don’t know enough about the case to make an accurate comment, but I do know the IPSSC and others have been involved with trying to get attention on this.  In my Robert Langdon post, Bill was mentioned as well.  If you would like to support Bill Shaw on Facebook, here is a link and let’s get the word out on this. –Matt

——————————————————————

Bill Shaw

Former RMP Officer Bill Shaw.

Family fears for Briton held in violent Afghan jail

Jerome Starkey

June 4, 2010

The family of a former British army officer jailed in Afghanistan on corruption charges have spoken of their fears for his safety after visiting him in one of the country’s most violent jails.

Bill Shaw, 52, was sentenced in April to two years in prison and fined $25,000 (£17,000) when a court found him guilty of trying to bribe an Afghan official. The former Royal Military Policeman was a manager of G4S, a security company that guards the British Embassy in Kabul.

Shaw was arrested with an Afghan colleague after handing over $25,000 for the release of two impounded vehicles. In court he said he thought it was a legitimate release fee, paid to a uniformed Afghan official. “He has been a victim of something set up,” said his daughter Lisa, 32, who travelled to Kabul with her mother Liz, 51, on Monday. Kimberley Motley, an American lawyer, is mounting Shaw’s appeal.

President Karzai has been repeatedly criticised for failing to reduce corruption within his Government. Although he referred to it as a cancer, he maintains that the West is just as guilty.

The country’s courts are notoriously opaque, justice can often be bought, and judges can be influenced by warlords, religious leaders or power brokers. In many parts of the country, Afghans turn to the Taleban who offer strict Islamic law, because it is preferable to the lengthy, expensive and often unfathomable state alternative. Shaw was convicted by a panel of three judges despite the prosecution’s failure to present witnesses.

(more…)

Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress