The Pentagon's New Multi-Lingual Web [1]
Submitted by Diane Farsetta [2] on
The U.S. Special Operations Command [3] awarded General Dynamics [4] Information Technology a $10.1 million contract to build the "Trans Regional Web Initiative [5]." The project will include "a minimum of two and no more than twelve websites" in languages such as Arabic, French, English, Chinese, Farsi, Russian, Urdu and Malay / Indonesian, in support of U.S. military "combatant commands." General Dynamics is tasked with recruiting a "network of native / indigenous content contributors with backgrounds in politics, academics, security, culture, entertainment, and other aspects of the Global War on Terror [6], which appeal to identified foreign target audiences." The project's goal is to develop "rapid, on-order global dissemination of Web-based influence products and tools in support of strategic and long-term U.S. Government goals and objectives." Network World notes that "conducting a war of words is a hot topic." In July, the Air Force awarded a $29.7 million contract to BBN, "to develop a prototype machine reading system" intended to allow artificial intelligence systems to "gather and analyze information from the Web."