Air Force courts outsiders with BlueTube site

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Air Force courts outsiders with BlueTube site
By Mark Abramson, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, November 29, 2008

The Air Force has spread its public relations wings into one of cyberspace’s most popular sites.

Air Force officials have tapped into YouTube with the new site, www.youtube.com/AFBlueTube. The site officially went active on Oct. 2, and an average of 400 to 500 people have logged on to it each day to view more than 23,000 videos about the service, said Air Force Capt. David Faggard. About 140 people have subscribed to get notified about the latest videos once they are posted on the site, Faggard added.

“It is really designed for civilians in mind. It is designed to share the Air Force story in a new and creative way,” Faggard said. “(Videos could be) funny or quirky.”

Faggard, who works in the Air Force’s Emerging Technology office, helped put the site together. It includes 65 videos at one time with content such as an interview with a female F-16 pilot whose first combat mission was patrolling the skies over Los Angeles on 9/11, video of the Air Force Academy and a Thunderbirds performance. The videos can be up to 10 minutes long and 100 megabytes.

“We have seen steady increases in the (viewership) numbers for the videos, but part of it depends on the interest in the video,” said Paul Bove, the site’s administrator.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59118