milBook – the Army's version of Facebook..

The American Army have recently created a social networking site that they describe as a military version of Facebook.

Called milBook, I doubt the site means you can “machete” your friends instead of “poking” them, but it does mean that security is higher (these results will definitely not be coming up in google) and it gives army personnel a securer way of contacting each other.

The company behind milBook describe it as “a new professional networking tool” and a place where “the Army’s technology community can now share ideas in discussion groups set behind its firewalled network”.

We imagine the firewalls are pretty formidable.

We also hope the use of “lol” will be significantly lower on milBook compared with its civilian equivalent. That phrase would be even more inappropriate given the content.

Two separate components to the army’s internal network include a Wiki containing the Army’s entire training manual – fascinating read I’m sure, and a blog section where soldiers or personnel can upload blogs about what they’re doing while being secure in the knowledge that they’re not compromising army intelligence. The aim is to improve practice by sharing knowledge.

The internet started off as a useful way of improving communication between military computers.. so you never know what might come out of this mil project. Even though the army and social networking seem like a slightly weird match.

Launched in October 2009, milBook has just hit 18,000 members.