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Army to test wiki-style changes to 7 manuals

If you’ve ever read an Army manual and thought you could make it better if only the Army would give you a chance, your moment has arrived.

In early July the Army will conduct a 90-day online test using seven existing manuals that every soldier, from private to general officer, will have the opportunity to read and modify in a “wiki”-style environment.

The people who write doctrine 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.

“The reality is that a lot of our doctrine simply has not kept up with the needs of the field, and a lot of the information being used right now is in local area networks being run by units that are deployed,” said Clint Ancker, director of the Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Those who want to participate will be required to establish a profile at the test site, which is scheduled to be launched in the first week of July. On the site, they will be known by their name, rank and unit.

Soldiers and “anybody with a Common Access Card” can gain access through the Army Knowledge Online site in the “forums” section of the home page, said Col. Charles Burnett, director of the Battle Command Knowledge System that will run the test.

Participants will be able to join forums specific to each manual and post to the manual in much the same way that updates and edits are made to the Wikipedia Web site.

But the Army’s process will be different: With each posting, a thread of comments will be visible to show all the changes that have been made and who made them.

Some participants may be contacted if an idea is of particular interest to the manual’s proponent, and others may be asked to elaborate on something they’ve posted if it merits further explanation.

Soldiers don’t need to be worried about being recruited as doctrine writers, Ancker said, because “I’m afraid if we do that, they may stop posting if they think they’re going to get [pulled] into this business.”

There is a concern, he said, that someone may have what they think is a good idea but which may not be. It’s assumed, however, that with enough people patrolling it for content, it will become self-policing, Ancker said.

One thing he’s not worried about is having too much input.

“We would be delighted if we could generate that kind of interest in doctrine,” Ancker said. “If we could get to the point where we could get the community engaged actively, this will be a huge success for the Army.”