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AOL's personalized war coverage

It�s a shame AOL content is only accessible to AOL members, because the company is doing some interesting things with its war coverage. AOL members are uploading photos of and letters from soldiers abroad. And last week AOL News launched a neat customized feature, "U.S. Forces Alerts," which enable AOL members to receive war news alerts whenever particular military units they care about are covered in the news.

The "U.S. Forces Alerts" are available for 76 specific units across all four U.S. military branches -- and can be delivered via e-mail or as a text message on cellphones or pagers.

"We created news alerts for specific divisions and military groupings, so, for instance, if your loved one is with the 4th Infantry, you can sign up for the 4th Infantry wireless or e-mail or IM alert so that whenever we have a story that mentions the 4th Infantry, you will be notified," AOL News Director Gary Kebbel told CyberJournalist.net. "Pretty cool, I think."

Kebbel says AOL is also allowing members to upload photos of them and their loved ones in the military to galleries for all to see. Military members are even uploading photos of themselves and their platoons.

AOL also has message boards and chat rooms designated for military pen pals, where AOL members who are in the military seek someone to chat with, and AOL members who are not in the military can show their support by befriending a military member.

AOL has also created digital post cards for family members to send each other from the encampments to their family and vice versa. "Remember that a good number of people in the military have AOL -- they are allowed to IM and e-mail their families, but not to call them, so AOL is great for them," Kebbel says.

Kebbel says AOL has had up to 91,000 people in its "Talk about the War" auditorium in a 24-hour period -- a remarkable number for an online conversation.

AOL also gets about 20,000 new message board posts a day (and was getting about 40,000 a day during the first few days of the war), which Kebbel's team culls through and features in a dynamic rotation on several section fronts.

Last week AOL News also launched a letters from the front section. Some AOL members are sending in their spouses' letters from the front, which AOL is aggregating with the other information.

Here's one example of a letter that Kebbel passed on:

Amy,

It's our fifth day here and the box with the mattress and writing stuff got here today, plus we got electricity so there's something other than sleeping to do after dark. Still no showers, but we found a local fire station today that let us get showers. I smelled way worse than a hamster! There are NO phones so I don't know when I'll be able to talk to you.

We're working our butts off setting up camp. It's not really desert here, more like a gravel parking lot. We put up tents and haul sandbags to keep bugs out and generally establish camp. Somehow my company is pulling all guard duty.

The camp is in Kuwait. Sand is everywhere. In my butt, in my teeth, in my ears. The weather is almost perfect though. It rains for about two minutes at a time, but it rains buckets. Tyler and I are getting along famously so far. We've made each other fall over laughing, mostly about the crappy conditions here. I've made friends with some of the RAF (British) troops. I tell them about our honeymoon and you. I swear that I'm not going to cry for at least one month.

I miss you so much but I can't think about it or I'll never think about anything else. I regret every time I missed making you happy and every time I stayed mad at you when I shouldn't have. I get made fun of for Sweetpea (the teddy bear), but everyone is jealous even when they make fun of me and they admit it.

I know this letter isn't long enough but I'm tired and the lights are going out soon.

I wear my wedding ring on my dog tag chain and I kiss it at least twice a day.

I love you. Goodnight.

Doug

Apr 08, 2003 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(2)

Discussion

2 comments about 'AOL's personalized war coverage'

I wanted to say something snarky about this until I read the letter about Sweetpea the bear and kissing the wedding ring ... *sniff* OK, so I see why this is a cool service. But I still think AOL "News" needs quotes or at least air quotes around it. News people don't arrange tearful reunions between soldiers and loved ones, or serve as counselors/mailmen/family photographers for either side -- we don't participate in the action, we report on it. While well-intentioned, and a good public service, I wouldn't categorize most of what AOL is doing here as "news."

Posted by Maureen at April 9, 2003 7:22 PM

would like to recieve news alerts on 1st Infantry Division etc..........................

Posted by suzie beuley at June 29, 2004 5:31 PM

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