“Jack Holt, senior strategist at the Pentagon for emerging media, said the DOD, particularly under the new administration, is "realizing this is more than just a passing fad and is a new dynamic in the way people communicate and the way they choose to inform themselves. We’re seeing more and more that it’s important to be involved in that conversation." Until now all the different elements have been working without much collaboration. "Security has been in their stove pipe, communication in their stove pipe, policy in their stove pipe," Holt said. "[Social networking] is cross-cutting. When you step into someone else’s territory you play by their rules. But this is more of a horizontal domain." Wells said it’s Draconian to simply ban the sites. "It’s really easy to say ‘no,’ but what’s the downside?" he said. "This is not just static, and we will start falling behind. We have to have ways to engage in this space." - × × ×