Final Paper ITO

An Apt Project for a Former Cadet

As most people who know me know by now, I plan to depart the Coast Guard Academy at the conclusion of this semester to take a sample of civilian life for at least a while. I will not write about why I am leaving or what I plan to do, but I will write about something I intend to do to assist those cadets who decide to leave in the future. It is not that I want to encourage cadets to leave this institution, it is just that I feel those who do come to the decision after much thought and debate should not feel completely befuddled as to what their options are and how they should start to piece their lives back together. I know that I have experienced a lot of anxiety just thinking about all of the tasks involved in leaving because I do not know what to expect at all the different stages of the process. If cadets are more aware of options and opportunities available to them upon their departure, they are more able to find success outside of this institution and can potentially act as more impressive representatives of the Academy.
That is why I decided to try to find a web 2.0 application or a combination of applications to assist departing cadets. I decided to go through many of the gadgets we discussed and tinkered with during this semester to find which of them are best-suited for this task. The tools I considered were Twitter, Ning, Facebook, wikis, and blogs. Some of these are much easier to dismiss than others but they must all be considered before I can begin developing and implementing a system.
Twitter
Twitter is described as a micro-blogging tool for users to update their current status or activity so that other users who are following them can receive the information on a live feed. The benefit of this tool lies in its creation of a real-time connection between people who are not physically in each other’s presence. One of the main benefits of Twitter is the ability for a question and answer interaction to be broadcast to many people instead of restricted to a two-person interaction (similar to regular blog activity). Although Twitter has been established as a useful tool in organizations and in the general public, it does not seem to be a very viable option as the primary platform for the task I wish to perform. I believe that the conversations taking place will simply require too much text (and may not even occur over the internet) for Twitter to be useful. However, Twitter could be used as a supplement to post links to updates on a different platform.
Ning
Ning is a social networking tool that allows users to create their own social networks instead of joining into an existing one such as Facebook or MySpace. The benefit of using Ning over Facebook is the ability to customize the network and have more control regarding its security and specificity. I believe that Ning’s capabilities would fulfill my requirements if being able to support the task was all I was concerned about. However, I am also concerned about how likely an effective implementation could be with certain tools. In Ning’s case, it seems that implementation would prove to be a difficult task due to the very low number of cadets aware of its existence and familiar with its operations. I would have to take on the double task of coaxing cadets and former cadets into creating an account on Ning then familiarizing themselves with its design and capabilities before any benefits were even possible. At this time I do not believe that Ning will work for my purposes.
Wiki
A wiki is simply a document that allows anyone granted permission to make additions, edits, or deletions. The most famous wiki example is the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia. The benefits of using a wiki include the concept of the “wisdom of crowds” and the “long-tail.” The wisdom of the crowds discusses how, collectively, we are much more intelligent than we are alone. The long-tail is a graphical representation of how people are distributed in terms of their interests. There is one side of the graph where most of the data points lie (the big blockbuster movies) that quickly drops off to the side of the graph where the data points are much more sparse (nearly unknown foreign indie film). Amazon has successfully leveraged the long-tail by finding a way to make a much wider selection of books available. This is accomplished by using user reviews, suggestions based on similarity, and functioning as a medium between users doing business. Through their processes they create a business model where it is profitable to sell as few as one copy of any title each year (so long as it is not a title they are holding in bulk in inventory). Similar to Amazon’s work, Wikipedia has found a way so that even the most obscure of topics (those in the long-tail) get coverage. Since they allow so many people to contribute to their project (as in everyone), they are much more likely to cover the topics that only a few people are interested in writing and reading about. In addition to increasing the amount of information collected, the accuracy also benefits through the wiki process. If thousands of people are given the opportunity to contribute their knowledge and efforts, it is much more likely that an accurate and thorough article will result than if one intelligent person were asked (and paid) to complete the same task. Opening up the task to thousands (or millions) of people allows all of those contributors to split the one topic into a seemingly infinite number of more detailed topics that they may know more about, or may even be an expert on.
I believe that wikis could play a very significant role in assisting with the goal I have proposed. Although I would first have to convince a large number of people to buy-in to my project, they could eventually write up very detailed wikis on specific portions of the separation process. Some of these specific segments could include the process of submitting resignation or sabbatical paperwork, completing the check-out process with cadet administration, utilizing veterans’ benefits, applying to other schools, and reapplying to the Academy at the completion of a sabbatical. I would probably have to make the initial contributions on many of these wikis to convince other people to make an effort, but I believe these could eventually prove to be very useful documents. Additionally, if any of the procedural details change with time, more recent defectors could update the wikis with the most current information.
Blogs
Blogs encompass any and all electronically, self-published, written pieces. It does not matter the topic, the audience size, the audience composition, or the blogging service used, they are all blogs. The advent of blogs has created a massive influx of written material on the web and severely increased the amount of inaccurate, unprofessional, and emotionally-based material. These changes are due very simply to the decreasing difficulty and cost involved in broadcasting electronic data to the masses. Any person who feels as though he or she can help others by writing their opinion or publishing their individual research, or anyone that simply enjoys the feeling he or she receives from being able to somewhat anonymously speak to the public (or a couple people who accidentally clicked on their blog), will flock to blogging websites such as blogger or wordpress.
A blog could work very well to accomplish my goal. It can by no means achieve all of the goals but it can definitely supplement some other implementations. For instance, some of the persons who choose to leave the Academy can include a written narrative of their experiences in an already-established blog or they could create a blog specifically for this purpose. Although I myself have not updated my blog with an out-processing narrative, I do intend to write up one piece explaining the entire process and post it on my blog. I am aware that many people use their blogs in more of a journal-like manner, but I will betray that typicality and write an after-action report of sorts (I must be meant for the military).
Facebook
Facebook is a social network that people typically use to stay close to their friends, family, and classmates. Some people do use the service to contact users who are mere acquaintances or who they do not know at all, but this seems to encompass a minority of Facebook users at this time. Facebook allows users to join a geographic, occupational, or academic network and to use a “friend” function to establish special relationships with certain users which allows an increased level of visibility between the user profiles. Whereas the typical user relationship may only allow viewing of a name, a profile picture, and a network, friends may view all of each other’s photos, published notes, all contact and interest information, and “wall” postings. The wall is a public means of communication where people post bits of conversation directly onto another user’s profile. Friends and users in general may communicate through messages as well as wall posts if they desire privacy in their electronic conversation. Another function included on Facebook is the opportunity to create and join “groups.” Users can create groups on practically anything at all; including sports, literature, poetry, celebrities, politics, news, humor, or events. Although some groups provide very little value to the users who are a part of them, others are highly valuable in that they may provide information, support, pleasurable socialization, or knowledge of group-related events.
In my opinion, Facebook can very clearly serve as the primary foundation for accomplishing my task. Almost all cadets and an increasing number of alumni are already signed up on Facebook and have already created hundreds of connections to classmates. If a group were to be established that is worthwhile and easy-to-use, it could dramatically increase in popularity in a very short period of time. On this group page I could post discussion topics on specific topics related to departing the Academy as well as links to the related blogs and wikis. If there are any electronic copies of documents involved in the process then those could be posted as well.
Using the implementations discussed above, I believe I can create a very useful resource for cadets who are interested in departing or are at least curious as to how the process works. By using this resource, cadets will be able to focus more on finding post-Academy success. I do not believe that this tool will in any way encourage cadets to leave but I do believe that it will facilitate the administrative barrier to departing. Although this resource could one day include other gadgets, a Facebook group, wikis, and blogs will provide a good base for any future modifications. I have started the Facebook group and I will update my blog now that I have completed the process of leaving the Academy on a sabbatical. Soon, once the group gathers a substantial number of members, I will create and link wikis to the group.

Here is the link for the Facebook group:
Facebook Group