Cute Pets Not Likely on Army’s Video-sharing Site

First, there was Army social networking site milBook, followed by collaborative site milWiki, and then blogging platform milBlog.

Now, the Army has announced its launch of milTube, which will allow service members to upload, share and view videos.

Protected by the Defense Department’s firewall, the new site gives a literal meaning to “safe for work.”

MilTube is the latest addition to the milSuite set of Web 2.0 tools the Army has created “so it can offer personnel media-sharing and social networking sites similar to ones popular with civilian Web users, but in a secure environment,” InformationWeek reports.

But aside from the novelty of a video-sharing site (it’s probably unlikely milTube will see its share of cute pet-trick videos), it will mostly serve an official purpose, such as sharing training videos, event videos and news updates.

While it shares some similarities with its more famous cousin YouTube, site creator Justin Filler, deputy director of the Army’s MilTech Solutions Office, which oversees the slew of Web 2.0 tools, said milTube has its own special role to play.

“YouTube serves a purpose and this serves a purpose,” he told Wired. MilTube will offer to a “more targeted audience” the ability “to communicate on official [Defense Department] business,” he added.