Suggestion for Army.ca Resource Collection

[P Kaye]

Disclaimer:  This is only a suggestion.  Army.ca is an absolutely fantastic forum, and the inventor has my whole-hearted congratulations and gratitude.  I wanted to post this suggestion to get some feedback on whether people think it would be useful and/or feasible.

The suggestion: to have some kind of resource collection on Army.ca that people could upload and download documents to and from.  Often posts are made of hte general form "does anybody know where I can find [a particular document]".  It might be useful for users to be able to respond to such inquiries by posting the requested document somewhere in Army.ca for users to download.

Also, users may have created their own aide--memoires.  I am currently working on a trimmed-down FMP-size list of file numbers commonly used for Army memos.  I thought it would be nice to post these for people to download.  I'm also creating an FMP-sized pocket reference of must-know QR&Os and sections of the NDA for Army Officers/NCMs.  I also have a nice labelled photograph showing a standard webbing setup and how to pack your rucksack, that was made my a fellow course candidate.  All of these might be of interest to people on Army.ca.  Likely otheres have similar things that they might want to share.

Is this a good idea?  Is it feasible?  Are there legal implications if people start posting PAMs?

 

[ZipperHead]

I think that this is an excellent suggest. I was toying with the idea of starting a webpage for leaders in the Army. There are a few sites out there aimed at  US Army leaders, for "leader books", lesson plans, aide-de-memoires, etc, all with an (obviously) US Army bent.

I think that, from my experience, there have been too many instance of duplication of effort, reinventing the wheel, etc, because there is no (to my knowledge) central "warehouse" for these things. As an example, where I work (at the Armour School in Gagetown), before, during and after courses, you see people falling forests worth of trees making their own aide-de-memoires, sometimes from scratch, sometimes photocopying other peoples. Sometimes this is neccesary due to the seemingly constant changes we are making lately  :crybaby: but sometimes because there is no central place to find this stuff. On my 6A, I brought my laptop and printer and pumped out 100's of cards for my checklist books, and shared with my coursemates, so they wouldn't have to make them by hand. We refer to it as "arts and crafts", and it's a gross waste of time. To the School's credit, we are addressing this by creating field-tough checklist and aide-de-memoires, but as many things are in life, these aren't always what a person wants (too big, too small, too detailed, too general, etc).

Anyway, this would be great, so that people can root through, find things they need (in an electronic format), and change them at will.

I see a few minor issues at play though: 1) A person would have to be very careful to make sure that whatever they post isn't contrary to CF security and copyright legal issues. 2) that the info is current (ie. latest doctrine, tactics, SOP's). It can be VERY difficult to keep up with issues, and I have witnessed handouts given to students a day later than the ones given to instructors for standardization be substantially different (a date-time group is DEFINITELY req'd, as an approving authority (ie. Armd School, Inf School, DAT, etc). 3) Credit should be given to whomever put in their time and effort (ie. a footer or watermark of some form). 4) It would have to find a home: I don't think that Mike can afford the type of bandwidth that would be req'd to up and download a 20MB C6 PowerPoint slideshow, that has all the bells and whistles, and to see 1000 people try to grab it. Links to a persons personal webpage would be doable, or a FTP site, GMail account, etc.

On the whole, I think it is a very worthwhile endeavor, and it can be a great resource for those "out of the loop" (cadets, Reservists without access to DIN, interested civilians).

I would be willing to help where I can from my end (I am currently on parental leave until mid-March), and hopefully many of the techno-soldiers who frequent this site could help as well.

Great suggestion, and take care,

Allan Luomala

 

[Franko]

I think that this is an excellent suggestion.

I agree.

I see a few minor issues at play though: 1) A person would have to be very careful to make sure that whatever they post isn't contrary to CF security and copyright legal issues. 2) that the info is current (ie. latest doctrine, tactics, SOP's).

There is the final nail in the coffin. There are OPSEC concerns with putting out that type of info, therefore, I can't see it happening.

Regards

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

I like the idea. I've also seen a lot of duplication of effort over the years, and that's a real waste of resources. We [literally] have the technology to do this, so the question really is, who will contribute and who will benefit?

At any rate, the new forum is here:

http://army.ca/forums/index.php/board,47.0.html

Allan brings up some very good points about this forum though, and as a result, I've created a "rules" post that explains how this system will work. Looking forward to seeing some of these documents show up here!


Cheers
Mike

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

And Franko is right... the OPSEC issues will be the biggest stumbling block here, but hopefully there is enough "public" info to make this worth while. If not, well, at least we tried...

 

[P Kaye]

Awesome!!!  As soon as I've polished-off my Aide-Memoires, I'll post them.  The stuff I'm working on is administrative/legal references, so there are no copyright issues or tactical value.

 

[garb811]

I know this will be a burden but I'd like to suggest that this forum be set-up so that only staff members (or other suitably qualified pers) can post to it so that a vetting process will be in place to make sure nothing falls through the cracks and ends up in the public domain which shouldn't, even for the briefest period of time.

 

[Mike Bobbitt]

I understand the concern, but it's not really practical to vet things in this manner. (Who do submissions get sent to? etc...)

Right now there's nothing stopping OPSEC/PERSSEC breaches on the open forums, but the staff are generally on top of the odd one that does occur. This system has struck a reasonable balance between security and maintainability, so extending it to the documents section makes sense. We may have to revisit this if it becomes a recurring issue of course.

...unless that was you volunteering...?

 

[big bad john]

Draft him Mike.

 

[garb811]

Volunteer...err...uhh...hey, is that my Mom calling me for dinner?   Gotta go!

I would do it but unfortunately although I think I have a pretty good grasp on most things Army I definately don't have the ability to review stuff like TTPs and SOPs without research material and I don't have access to very much of that right now.

What I had been thinking about when I suggested this was something I have seen done on other Message Boards where you can submit a post or file but it's not publicly viewable until one of the Staff had approved it.   You have more than enough experience on Staff now that very little would be outside someones realm of knowledge, or they could refer it to a proven member who did have the knowledge to review it.   Unfortunately if it's not possible to do it this way, I agree with you that it would become unmanageable very quickly.

 

[armydrake01]

Maybe I am missing the point of what you are looking for; why don't you want to use the ones on the DIN?  There is a no shortage of docs, pubs and Regs.  Although, I must admit they are sometimes extremely difficult to find.  Gagetown has an aide memoire's for just about everything.  I even had a Patricia tell me to look there for infantry manuals.

 

[qjdb]

It is for people who do not have access to the DIN, like for example, CIC officers, Reserve Officers, Cadets, that kind of idea.

Instead of someone starting a thread 'Where can I find the Drill Manual?' They could just go to this new forum, and find it.

Quentin

edit:   OK, after reading Mike's rules, not the drill manual, too big, but that kind of idea

 

[ZipperHead]

Mike, do you ever move fast!!! Where were you when they were trying to deal with this pay raise?!?!?!

I read the rules and I like it (after all, you are the boss.....). Hopefully, this will become a one-stop shop for people who need to sort themselves out before a course, going to the field, on deployment, etc.

Cheers,

Al

P.S Armydrake, you obviously haven't had to deal with the *very* annoying way that "the system" put everything into non-editable (ie as image, vs text) PDF files for manuals. Very hard to create a useful a-d-m (too fuzzy and large file sizes).  I have even seen where there were coffee stains and writing in the margins of the e-pam, or pages on an angle (ie when the mindless drone scanning it didn't pay enough attention to detail). VERY professional. : We have the technology, let's start to use it............ in a non-dumbass army guy way.