Navy CIO Torpedoes Public-Facing Blog

The first public blog post by the U.S. Navy's new CIO is also his last. Less than two weeks into the job, Terry Halvorsen has posted a blog to explain that he will no longer communicate via that platform."I'm sure you'll find it interesting and maybe a bit ironic that the new CIO's first blog is his last blog," Halvorsen writes in the Dec. 1 post.

Formerly the deputy commander of Navy Cyber Forces, Halvorsen replaced Robert Carey as Navy CIO on Nov. 22. Carey, a regular blogger when he had the job, was recently named deputy CIO of the Department of Defense, after 10 years as the Navy's top IT decision maker.

Halvorsen's decision seems to fly in face of the Obama administration's open government strategy, which encourages government officials to increase public engagement, not do less of it. Halvorsen writes that he believes "in the value of social media" and that it "has its place" in the Navy, but he doesn't expand on that line of thinking.

Why kill the CIO blog? Halvorsen says "there is much work to be done" in his new job and that "blogging must be a lower priority." He plans to focus on face-to-face meetings and is considering writing a column on the Navy CIO Web site.

In lieu of the public-facing blog, Halvorsen directs the Navy's civilian employees and contractors to use the Navy's Pulse site to collaborate in a "secure" environment. A .mil account is required to access that site. In other words, it's out of public view.

Among the casualties of this new policy are the writings of Halvorsen's predecessor, Rob Carey. Carey's earlier posts have apparently been taken off line, though you can still find some of them in Google's cache.

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