iCommandantWeb Journal of Admiral Thad AllenDate: May 20, 2009

Guest Post from RDML Mary Landry,
Director of Governmental and Public Affairs.
Fellow Guardians,
Very soon we will launch the new Coast Guard Service blog, The Coast Guard Compass. This step forward is a direct result of the benefits we have seen in our short entry into social media and the organizational benefits for our service by institutionalizing social media into our organizational culture.
As we roll out the Compass, we will be revising the comment policy for official Coast Guard blogs (see the new comment policy below). The main difference between the new policy and the old is that the anonymous comment feature will be disabled. We want to have a conversation that encourages the open and honest discourse that is elevated when relationships are built among readers. Encouraging people to use their name, or at least a consistent user name (pseudonym), is one way to do this.
When posting comments, I hope that all of our readers take time to think about the Guardian Ethos and our core values. This is not to say that comments that disagree with the Coast Guard, or that have a contrary opinion will not be posted. We want you to be honest. We want you to help us be the best Coast Guard we can be for you, but we must achieve this in a polite, professional and constructive manner.
As we move forward in social media, I hope you will continue to read and continue to comment. Your conversation with us is important; we are your Coast Guard?what you say matters.
The policy reads as follows:
We welcome your comments on postings at all Coast Guard sites/journals. These are sponsored by the U.S. Coast Guard to provide a forum to talk about our work providing maritime safety, security and stewardship for the American people to secure the homeland, save lives and property, protect the environment, and promote economic prosperity.
Please note: Anonymous comments have been disabled for this journal. It is preferred that you use your real name when posting a comment. WE WILL POST THE NAME YOU ENTER WHEN YOU SUBMIT YOUR COMMENT. Also, you are welcome to use Open ID or other user technologies that may be available.
All comments submitted are moderated and will be reviewed before posting. The Coast Guard retains the discretion to determine which comments it will post and which it will not. We expect all contributors to be respectful. We will not post comments that contain personal attacks of any kind; refer to Coast Guard or other employees by name; contain offensive terms that target specific ethnic or racial groups, or contain vulgar language. We will also not post comments that are spam, are clearly off topic or that promote services or products.
We will make our best effort to promptly post those comments that are consistent with the Comment Policy, but given the need to manage federal resources, moderating and posting of comments will usually occur only during regular business hours, Monday through Friday. Comments submitted outside of business hours will be read and posted as quickly as possible.
For anyone who isn?t aware, OpenID it is a decentralized standard for user authentication and access. It allows users to log onto multiple services with the same login name (digital id). So, it replaces the common login process and lets a user log in once and gain access to a plethora of online resources while maintaining a secure identification process. OpenID is a great way for our readers who want to share with us their sites and their social media efforts to do so with their comments.
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