Getting a Good Site Picture: Military Websites of Interest

In my virtual journeys this week, I traversed the Internet looking at various websites I hoped to use in order to beef-up my existing linkroll. Using Webby and IMSA criteria, I examined several dozen websites and have chosen ten of high design and/or information quality relating to military training and added them to my list (which is located below and to the right). The sites, discussed below, can be visited by clicking on their title in the linkroll.

Generally, I found that most sites dedicated to military training fell into roughly four main categories:

The first is mostly comprised of sites that have poor design quality and very questionable authority. Though some of these sites provided (what can be called) intriguing information, I choose not to list them because of their excessive lack of authority.

The second category is made up of sites that boast valuable information and link collections but, as is an historical issue with military websites, have poor design quality. Sites such as ‘The RMA Debate,’ which is a repository of argumentative essays and reports by people of varying authority, belong in this category. ‘Defense Update,’ a site with international RSS feeds, also falls under this unfortunate description.

Perhaps the most authoritative collection of military training websites is a compilation of sites targeted specifically toward professionals and academics. These sites boast higher quality design and the utmost in authority. The ‘U.S. Army War College’ is the main hub to sites such as ‘The U.S. Army War College Quarterly Journal,’ and the ‘Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College.’ The later provides visitors access to downloads of academic studies in every imaginable facet of military operations and training.

The fourth and final category is composed of sites that are professional in design (most likely these sites are designed and operated by professional third party web-design companies) and are aimed primarily at general employees. These sites’ main priority is news circulation though many also double as employee interaction forums. ‘Military.com’ not only provides news items, it provides links to services military members may find valuable and this site has a collection of discussion forums and blogs. ‘Stars and Stripes,’ ‘Military Times,’ ‘The Army Times,’ and ‘Defense News’ are all web-based versions of print news. Though all of these sites can boast superior design quality, each receives their news feeds from different sources. ‘Stars and Stripes’ is generally a collection of articles written by both their own staff writers and professional reporters from media outlets worldwide and is distributed to deployed American troops. The later three sites are produced exclusively as employee newsletters and often contain information such as promotion details, pay charts, and benefit updates.