Sunday 16 August 2009

US Army testing wiki-style editing of manuals

The US Army is in the midst of a 90-day online test of using wiki-style methodology to keep Army manuals up to date, according to the Army Times . The pilot program called Army Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (ATTP) converts the contents of field manuals into a wiki format and posts them online. The Army is using seven existing manuals that every soldier, from private to general officer, can then read and modify the manuals in a “wiki”-style environment.
The manuals are FMI 3-04.155 Army Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations, FM 3-07.20 Modular Brigade Augmented for Security Force Assistance, FM 3-21.9 The SBCT Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad, FM 3-09.15 Site Exploitation, FM 3-97.11 Cold Weather Operations, FM 5-19 Composite Risk Management, and FM 6.01-1 Knowledge Management Section. The people who write the doctrine in the manuals say that with things changing so fast in the field, it has been hard to keep the Army’s 550 manuals up to date and relevant. By letting the entire Army update the manuals, they say, more and better information can go out to a wider population of soldiers. This system will allow lessons learned in the field to become an immediate part of doctrine, with rapid dissemination.

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