Google for Veterans
November 11, 2011 - 17:13 — curtis
Veterans Day 2011
Today Google launched Google for Veterans and Families, which aggregates many useful Google tools in an effort to assist veterans and their families in transitioning back into civilian life and staying in touch with loved ones.
This ambitious project acts as virtual VA Center and includes social networking tools such as VetConnect and the Veterans Channel that allows current and former service members to upload information and video in order to let them easily find friends and connect with other people who share similar experiences. It also provides vets and their families a centralized location for tips on transitioning, messages of encouragement, resume building, and tributes.
The tool most relevant to i202 is “Tour Builder” which combines many services an ischool student should be familiar with (docs, maps, picasa...) in and effort to allow veterans to comprehensively record as much detail of their service as possible. Instead of a government or media portrayal of service, a soldier can now recount their personal experiences by curating their own personal archive of pictures, videos, sounds, documents, and maps that can be accessed by as few or as many people as they like. Veterans will be able to upload, edit, tag, and share in real time. This bottom up approach promises to be able to organize, collaborate, and share information about a veteran's personal experiences on a scale never before seen.
Of course these individual tools have been around for awhile, Google branded or not, but the resources and interoperability of Google should be an antidote to the maze of different formats, fragmented networks, and hard to use interfaces that currently exist for vets. If Google for Vets proves successful, one could imagine Google offering similar individualized portals and services for cancer patients, foster children, recovering addicts...the list goes on.
Today Google launched Google for Veterans and Families, which aggregates many useful Google tools in an effort to assist veterans and their families in transitioning back into civilian life and staying in touch with loved ones.
This ambitious project acts as virtual VA Center and includes social networking tools such as VetConnect and the Veterans Channel that allows current and former service members to upload information and video in order to let them easily find friends and connect with other people who share similar experiences. It also provides vets and their families a centralized location for tips on transitioning, messages of encouragement, resume building, and tributes.
The tool most relevant to i202 is “Tour Builder” which combines many services an ischool student should be familiar with (docs, maps, picasa...) in and effort to allow veterans to comprehensively record as much detail of their service as possible. Instead of a government or media portrayal of service, a soldier can now recount their personal experiences by curating their own personal archive of pictures, videos, sounds, documents, and maps that can be accessed by as few or as many people as they like. Veterans will be able to upload, edit, tag, and share in real time. This bottom up approach promises to be able to organize, collaborate, and share information about a veteran's personal experiences on a scale never before seen.
Of course these individual tools have been around for awhile, Google branded or not, but the resources and interoperability of Google should be an antidote to the maze of different formats, fragmented networks, and hard to use interfaces that currently exist for vets. If Google for Vets proves successful, one could imagine Google offering similar individualized portals and services for cancer patients, foster children, recovering addicts...the list goes on.
- curtis's blog
- Login or register to post comments