ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (March 13, 2013) -- As the Chief Knowledge Officer for the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps, Col. Scott Reid serves a community of 10,000 active duty and reserve attorneys and staff practicing in approximately 600 offices in 21 countries.
To help the geographically diverse JAG Corps share information and documentation, Reid and his team created a community space called "JAGConnect" on milBook, the Department of Defense's professional networking tool located behind the firewall.
"Even though they're located worldwide, most of our attorneys practice within the same six functional areas," said Reid. "Although client information is off-limits, we strive to improve our law practices across the Army by sharing innovative ideas, new legal developments and the most up-to-date document templates. We decided to use milBook to accomplish this goal because it provided the right mix of functionality, security and ease of access."
The Army JAG Corps, along with 10 other organizations and individuals across the Armed Services, were recently recognized for its innovative efforts in collaboration and professional networking in the inaugural Best of milBook Awards.
Five individuals were awarded the milBook "innovators" award, which honors those spearheading the use of the tool to accomplish their organizational missions. Six organizations were recognized for their adoption of milBook to successfully engage with employees and customers while improving their business processes.
Since its launch in 2009, DoD professionals have used milBook to create more than 3,500 groups and communities centered around diverse subjects such as chaplaincy, medicine and tactical communications. Within these groups, personnel are able to share documents, collaborate on discussions and connect with others in their organizations and across the enterprise.
MilBook is a component of milSuite -- a DoD-wide, secure suite of four collaboration tools that mirror existing social media platforms such as Facebook, Wikipedia and YouTube, but are located behind the DoD firewall. MilSuite is accessible to all DoD military, civilian and contractor personnel through Common Access Card authentication at https://www.milsuite.mil.
"As milBook has evolved, more organizations have leveraged and customized the tool to meet their business needs and achieve mission success, especially over the past year," said Tom Curran, product director for milSuite. "We wanted to recognize how various groups robustly adopted the tool and provide their best practices to the community."
Nominations for the Best of milBook 2012 contest were submitted in November 2012 by the greater milSuite community, which currently comprises more than 280,000 DoD personnel. The milSuite team chose the 11 winners and official awards were presented in February 2013.
The Best of milBook 2012 Winners
The milBook "innovators" for 2012 were: Lt. Col. Lawrence Grega, chief of strategic systems integration for the Army National Guard; Kristen Jenner, knowledge management officer at the U.S. Army Engineer School; Shanna Moore, Defense Information Systems Agency field team engineering lead for the U.S. Transportation Command; Col. Shirley Raguindin, Air National Guard (ANG) chief diversity officer; and Alan Schreck, program manager at the National Guard Bureau.
Raguindin accepted the award on behalf of more than 140 Human Resources Advisors (HRAs) in the ANG.
"MilBook has helped enable a significant increase in online collaborative groups, not just for HRAs, but for many functional areas in the ANG," she said. "The tool has helped us to streamline our communication processes, resulting in better informed groups and improved productivity, which is critical in an environment of declining resources."
The Air Force's Air Mobility Command was recognized in the "New Way to Lead" category for "Air Mobility Connect," a milBook community space designed to connect more than 130,000 mobility professionals within the DoD.
The JAG Corps was awarded in the "New Way to Win" category for "JAGConnect."
The Army's 13th Financial Management Support Center (FMSC) was awarded in the "Teaming" category for their use of milBook to connect with Soldiers deployed to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait. The 13th FMSC serves as the principal advisor of financial management operations to commanders in Camp Arifjan, and was able to use milBook to successfully collaborate with their deployed customers.
The Army's Communications-Electronics Research, Development, and Engineering Center (CERDEC) Command, Power, & Integration Directorate (CP&I) and the Army Medical Command (MEDCOM) were both recognized in the "Engaging Employees" category.
CERDEC CP&I engages more than 300 staff members, approximately 95 percent of the organization, on a miBook group which features a regular "Director's Thoughts" blog. MEDCOM created a group on milBook that provides a collaborative environment for the organization's knowledge management and training initiatives.
The General Fund Enterprise Business System (GFEBS) team, assigned to the Army's Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems, was recognized in the "Engaging Customers" category. GFEBS recently became the Army's flagship Enterprise Resource Planning system. Throughout the full deployment of the system, administrators and more than 50,000 end users were able to access a GFEBS milBook group to communicate on topics such as lessons learned and integration models.
"These individuals and organizations are leveraging the milSuite tools to achieve and improve their business processes every day," said Curran. "They are proving the value of the toolset while they are successfully executing their individual missions."
milSuite is assigned to the Army's Program Executive Office, Command, Control, Communications-Tactical Military Technical Solutions Office.
Related Links:
Army.mil: Science and Technology News
Best of milBook 2012 announcement (government ID CAC login required)
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