This week, I have been looking through the web to find sites and blogs that would help me better understand the current situation in the United States Air Force as well as its role in national security and foreign policy. I used Webby and IMSA criterias to determine the standards of the sites and blogs and I found out that while there were very limited number of legitimate blogs that specialize on the air force, several think-tank and research center websites shined in terms of content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionability, interactivity, and overall experience. I have listed about twenty sites and blogs which I found useful onto my linkroll, and I will go over each one, starting with think-tank and research center websites.
First, I must say that RAND Corporation's Project AIR FORCE website takes the gold. RAND is a think-tank that specializes on national security issues (my father works here but there is little bias involved) founded by the air force actually. This connection provides top-notch resources (mostly the joint-effort studies by top civilian experts and air force officers). The overall web experience reflects the military elements; the structure is very well organized and easy to navigate; the visual design is clear and not too busy. While most of the resources are used to advise the government officials, they are also fully available to the public; easy to search and download. One weakness is that, there is small room for interactivity.
Another site that stood out was the Air Force Times. The name says it all, but the most impressive elements were its fuctionability and interactivity. It was just more than a newspaper; it was a community. It provided sources of help for all aspects of life in the air force - family (spouse, children), jobs after the military, etc. It also had discussion boards and polls that helped the airmen to freely express and share their own thoughts. Another one that had similar qualities was Airman. It is an official magazine of the US Air Force, meaning everything is written and edited by real airmen and therefore legitimate. It is really helpful in terms of letting readers sear
ch, download, and even give feedback on the contents very easily. This site also has the visual designs that basically creates the air force environment. Another official air force magazine that stood out was Leader. It is mostly because it is targeting cadets like me. I am not an avid reader, but whenever I read, it gives a deep insight into preparations for active-duty, and any critical information or updates I need to know about the air force. The structure, visual design, functionability, and interactivity on the web was disappointing, unlike its printed edition.The United States Air Force Institute for National Security Studies provided many helpful publications and links to other similiar institutions, but since it was a strictly government website, the other elements besides the content were pretty dull. Another same example was Air War College. It actually gave links to other air force related journals. Yet, unless you subscribe them, they were hardly available. Journals such as Jane's Information Group was a high-quality material, especially its content (covering the worldwide conflicts, defense products, etc). The group is based in United Kingdom so it does not specialize on our national security/defense. Nevertheless, it is still very useful. It is also supposed to provide special services and functions for its "clients", but I have not signed up yet, therefore I do not know. Globalsecurity.org's military section was very comprehensive in terms of content and structure; covered all systems, branches, operations, industries, etc. However, it functions as news-feeds mostly, and its visual design needs some improvements too. Council on Foreign Relations is one of the nation's most influential think-tanks, and its websites on Defense/Homeland Security and International Peace and Security show high qualities in all areas (especially the content). The only thing is that it's about overall military, not focusing on the air force. National Defense Univeristy, Center for National Policy, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, Center for International and Strategic Studies, The Heritage Foundation, Henry L. Stimson Center, and Lexington Institute were all helpful research centers, but too broad in terms of military, not just the air force.
There were also some blogs related to the air force which I had enjoyed. The first one was Air Force Blues. It was just a personal blog by an officer who draws cartoons about the life in the air force. The visual design is just like any other real air force website, and very interactive – people commenting every time. The other ones were Air Force Live and Air Force Pundit, which were also ran by officers, but very limited amount of content and functionability.
I enjoyed searching through things online, and I look forward to keep looking into more.
1 comment:
Jeenho,
With the uncertainty in many parts of the world the Air Force is clearly a crucial part of United States defense strategy. The Air Force allows the military to strike quickly and with less risk than other branches which I think is a crucial element in modern warfare. I really appreciate that you have decided to take a career in the armed forces to protect the country that so many people take for granted. I found your post insightful and genuine and I could see that you spent significant time reading/analyzing each site. I especially liked the structure of your post because you made it simple and concise detailing what you thought were the best sites and spending less time on what you thought were the worst sites. This differs from my own in that I focused on each one fairly equally and I had a lot more to say about my favorite ones. The only thing that I can really think of as far as constructive criticism is that perhaps you could have done more research to find sites that were less broad so that you would not have the large mass of them at the end of the blog with that being the same criticism for all of them. I will qualify this by saying if you had no other choice in terms of sites you handled it well by focusing on the important ones and ignoring the worse ones. I realize it could be somewhat difficult to find 20 sites that are specific to the Air Force and that still provide relevant information. Overall, this was a great post and I will be checking back to see your future ones.
Dan
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