Its creator is quick to point out that it shouldn’t be seen as a YouTube competitor, even within the military. “YouTube serves a purpose and this serves a purpose,” says Justin Filler, deputy director of the Army’s MilTech Solutions Office. MilTube will cater to a “more targeted audience to communicate on official [Defense Department] business.”

That means you shouldn’t post your videos of you dropkicking your buddies or racing Humvees when you get bored. MilTube is for unclassified-but-sensitive material like “training videos [or] meetings,” Filler says. “People can highlight different conferences, different speeches that generals or others give.” In other words, users should expect a more professional and less-goofy video-sharing and viewing experience.

MilTube is the latest addition to a two-year old series of military-only knockoffs of social-media tools like MilBook, MilWiki and MilBlog that Filler and his colleagues have created. Known as MilSuite, it’s about “secure communities of practice,” using online tools that servicemembers enjoy using in their unofficial capacities or “working on at home,” he says, in order to discuss work-related issues and pool information. (No word on whether MilTweet is in the works, though.)

The Army’s currently worrying about how to keep its communications tools current for a generation of soldiers that grew up online. MilSuite, which claims 88,500 members, is one option. It’s also a solution to the military’s constant exhortation that troops shouldn’t talk about work through open social media. While a WikiLeaks-style security breach is “always a possibility,” Filler isn’t concerned about MilTube’s privacy-protections: “We’re a credited DOD system,” complete with authentication mechanisms to keep out adversaries or curious journalists.

That means it’s also likely to avoid the panic that higher-ups have shown over social media. YouTube isn’t always viewable through military networks. Those networks have even denied access to the military-friendly TroopTube video site, due to “content and/or security issues associated with potentially malicious file extension.” By keeping it secure — and professional — MilTube shouldn’t run into those pitfalls, though it also won’t have any Keyboard Cat or Double Rainbow.

And don’t worry: MilTube’s masters won’t comb TroopTube or YouTube looking for videos that should be behind the firewall. They’ll remain the place for showing off how you ghostride an MRAP, even if your commanding officer would really rather you didn’t.

See Also:

• Military Blocks Its Own ‘YouTube’ Knockoff (Updated Again …
• Military Video System Is Like YouTube With Artillery
• Military Hypes, Bans YouTube (Updated)
• Military Defends MySpace Ban (Updated Yet Again)
• No More YouTube, MySpace for U.S. Troops

Authors: Spencer Ackerman

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