US Military Turns to 'Reddit' Voting for Best Ideas
|
|
The U.S. military's new Eureka website aims to allow troops to up-vote the best ideas from their peers. Here U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Levi Riendeau updates his Facebook page
CREDIT: U.S. Air Force | Tech. Sgt. Randy Redman |
A U.S. Army private's solution for a battlefield problem could soon be up-voted by a four star general or admiral on the U.S. military's planned social site — a twist on the popular website Reddit.
The upcoming "Eureka" website would join the military's milBook social networking site that resembles Facebook, but would exist as its own portal. The military hopes Eureka will allow tens of thousands of troops to suggest and vote up ideas for tackling issues such as military training or mobile device security, according to Defense News.
Reddit has become a model of how a social website can lead to unexpected or interesting ideas rising to the top through peer vetting and voting.
A similar social system could help good ideas cut through the military's chain of command and bureaucracy, even if the ideas come from unexpected sources. U.S. troops have often come up with a variety of DIY battlefield inventions, but getting those ideas noticed by commanders can prove trickier. [US Soldiers Make Real 'Predator' Machine Gun Pack]
The military may even hold competitions for ideas or reward proposers of good ideas through Eureka when it launches in mid-July.
Source: Defense News via The Verge
Follow InnovationNewsDaily on Twitter @News_Innovation, or on Facebook.
