Defense Department Launches UGC Site

Written by Ryan Lawler

Tuesday, November 11. 2008 at 03:20 PM EST Post a comment

Digg   Del.icio.us   Reddit   Email This

no ratings

• Login to Rate

Just in time for Veteran's Day, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is launching TroopTube -- a  new social networking and user-generated content (UGC) site for military personnel.

TroopTube, which was designed to allow members of the armed forces to upload, browse, and share videos with friends, family, and other military personnel, is open to all active, guard, and reserve members of the U.S. military. 

The introduction of TroopTube comes a mere 18 months after the DoD blocked access to YouTube Inc. , MySpace , and 11 other social networking and video-sharing Websites. 

In many ways, TroopTube will be just like YouTube -- the site will allow users to rate and comment on uploaded videos, as well as allow users to mark favorites or flag inappropriate or copyrighted content.

The site is powered by technology from Delve Networks, a company that provides a software-as-a-service (SaaS) video management platform. Delve CEO Alex Castro says the platform will allow the military to create a site that is "more private than what YouTube would be."

EdgeCast Networks Inc. will get some share of TroopTube's delivery traffic, but not all of it, Castro says. Delve has a non-exclusive partnership with EdgeCast for content delivery, but Castro says the company will be working with multiple CDNs to ensure reliability around the world.