Photo By Christina McCann | Capt. Timothy Staton, a native of Charlotte, N.C., and the automation officer for the...... read more read more
Subscribe
By Spc. Chris McCann
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division Public Affairs
CAMP STRIKER, Iraq — A rule of thumb in website design is that any page within a site should be accessible within three clicks of the homepage, or people will go elsewhere to get the information they want. But in an organization as steeped in tradition as the military, applying website design rules can be tough.
CommandoWeb, the intranet for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) out of Fort Drum, N.Y., was designed and created by Capt. Timothy Staton, the brigade automations officer and a native of Charlotte, N.C. Created in December 2005, CommandoWeb didn't hit its stride until the brigade got to Iraq and began operations, Staton said.
"When we got in-country, we locked down our ideas and got input from the staff, created our standards and decided what each page should look like," he said.
Col. Michael Kershaw, the commander of 2nd BCT and a native of Huffman, Texas, mandated three rules for the brigade's intranet to facilitate quick and easy access to information, without a lot of searching.
Information should be available within three mouse-clicks, Kershaw said. Each page should provide the most commonly-sought information, and that information should fit into one screen with no scrolling. The principles are solid Web site design principles that have been market-tested for years.
Other brigades and divisions have complimented Staton and asked for pointers on improving their own intranets, he said.
"It's not the whole thing that they like, necessarily," Staton demurred. "But they do ask about certain functions or pages."
Staton said he is pleased with the look and feel of the site.
"I think what really makes it successful is that each section puts in their input on what they need. They can upload documents and share things. Anything that requires back-end work, like changing the front page, has to come through me, but the content is from them.
"For example, the brigade aviation element – they can update the slide offline with air medical evacuation status and weather reports, then upload it, and it automatically populates the new information. And instead of answering phone calls about who is on the next helicopter flight, they can simply refer them to CommandoWeb," said Stanton.
One of the most frequently checked pages is up front, a continuously updated snapshot of what is going on in the brigade. A menu along the side of each page provides buttons to each staff section's pages and information.
It's not just the commando brigade that uses the site, either, Staton said.
"(The 3rd Infantry) Division looks at it a lot, and the aviation units that work with us do too – the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, the 1st Cavalry Division, and sometimes our rear detachment at Fort Drum. Anyone who works with us, even units just moving through our area of operations can use it," said Stanton.
The CommandoWeb also helps Soldiers in and out of the field.
"We'd be unable to do our job without CommandoWeb and the Internet," said Staff Sgt. Darren Larson, a native of Des Moines, Iowa, who works in the 2nd BCT supply office. "Most of our transactions for logistics are on the Internet, all on automated systems. If I have a stock number and need to know what it is, I look it up. I could do things with the forms on paper, but you can only reach out so far with those. With a few thousand requests a day, it would be a huge stack of papers, plus all the wait time for the mail. Now, it all happens in a matter of seconds."
Maj. Shawn Schuldt, a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and the brigade's logistics officer, uses the intranet to post his contract tracker.
"We update that daily, and just that saves us countless phone calls," he said. "We also post the Camp Striker dining facility menu for each day."
Spc. Cassie Nielsen, an intelligence analyst with the 210th Brigade Support Battalion, a native of Livingston, Texas, uses CommandoWeb to help keep patrols safe.
"I look at route clearances and improvised explosive device activity," Nielsen said. Before a patrol from the 210th BSB goes out, she informs them about risks and IED patterns.
"It makes my job a lot easier, being able to access all the information that's on CommandoWeb," Nielsen said. "I can put everything together and see a lot of different angles."
The information on CommandoWeb is available only to those with a security clearance, but not all of the information the brigade has stays on it.
In keeping with the Army policy of "maximum information with minimum delay," the Commando Brigade issues press releases and command information stories every day. The information is released on several Web sites, including CommandoBlog, at http://CommandosOf2BCT.blogspot.com.
"The blog is really a powerful tool," said Sgt. 1st Class Angela McKinzie, a native of Austin, Texas, the 2nd BCT's public affairs non-commissioned officer in charge. "It's not only to keep the Soldiers informed, but the family members and the general public too. The blog can reach audiences that most newspapers can't."
"The best thing about the blog is the pervasiveness of the Internet and the proliferation of people using Weblogs," said Maj. Web Wright, a native of Annapolis, Md., and a spokesman for the 2nd BCT. "By posting the stories of 2nd BCT on our blog, we get a wider dissemination of stories, and by sending the link to friends and families of the 2nd BCT, we can get exponential coverage of the good things the Soldiers are doing."
The stories about 2nd BCT's Soldiers and their accomplishments often are re-posted on blogs such as Strategypage.com, Blackanthem.net and Iraqslogger.com – where they receive wide visibility to people who want to read about Soldiers.
"Today's infantry Soldiers still fight without computers," said Staton. "But everything else – especially the planning – we use computers. A unit doing an air assault can be in one location, talking to the command group in another location, talking to the aviation unit somewhere else, and they can have a meeting on one Web page, sharing slides and discussing the operation, without having to be physically in the same place. It brings everyone on the battlefield closer together."
| Date Taken: | 07.14.2007 |
| Date Posted: | 07.16.2007 08:11 |
| Story ID: | 11275 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 357 |
| Downloads: | 311 |
This work, Commando Brigade makes information easy, by Christina McCann, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
