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	Phil's Blogservations Friday, July 31, 2009 Posted by philgomes 10:36 AM "Lose Sight, Lose the Fight" We're at about six months since the United States Air Force's blog-response chart made its rounds online. Since then, it has crossed my desk often. I've always found it well-designed and comprehensive, though something has always bugged me about it. The other day, I figured out what it was. Somewhat incredibly, it ignores the number-one rule that all combat pilots must follow: "Lose Sight, Lose the Fight." The flaw is in the little box at the lower right-hand corner. INFLUENCE: Focus on the most used sites related to the Air Force. Seems narrow to me. For example, let's imagine that, say, and influencer like Robert Scoble is talking with a buddy in the Air Force. One day over coffee, the buddy says that the plane he flew in Iraq had an intermittent issue where the readouts would blink for no good reason when he crossed 10,000 feet. Let's also say this friend implied that his plane wasn't the only one to exhibit this non-fatal, but ultimately disconcerting, behavior. Let's then imagine that the influencer is later inspired to write about software quality and (presumably with his friend's permission and guarantee of anonymity) brings up the story of his friend's in-flight readout problem. The predictable number of links, comments, and "likes" ensue. At that moment, an influencer who is hardly a "most used [site] related to the Air Force" just became very important. And it falls outside the scope of the chart, at least until an Air-Force-related site picks it up. By then, it would be too late. Recognizing that online interactions are "rich and complex" (as an acquaintance and former RAND analyst would say), one realizes that no flowchart will catch every or even most situations. That said, this part strikes me as pretty severe, and certainly misses a core tenet of combat pilot philosophy. "Always in beta," as they say. Technorati Tags: air force, blogging, military HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes[[dot}]com SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.