DefenseLINK, the Department of Defense's public affairs on-line service, went
on line today. The World Wide Web service, a joint effort by DoD public
affairs and the Defense Technical Information Center, places DoD news releases
and other public affairs documents on the Internet.
The 24-hour, 7-day a week service is accessible via web browsers and the home
page is accessed at URL http://www.defenselink.mil.
While other documents will be added in the future, DefenseLINK currently
carries DoD news releases, DoD contract award announcements (for award of $5
million or more), memoranda for correspondents, press advisories, the daily
public schedules for the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, and
transcripts of DoD news and background briefings.
All releases are archived and available in three search databases: the previous
seven days, the current month, and all previous releases. The archive began
Oct. 15, 1994; however, the daily public schedule is not archived.
"We're very enthusiastic that DefenseLINK is on line. Dissemination of our
releases is faster and potentially reaches a much larger audience. Students,
industrialists, and U.S. taxpayers are among those who now have same time
access that once only news media really had," said Assistant to the Secretary
of Defense for Public Affairs Ken Bacon. In the future, DefenseLINK will add
fact sheets, DoD biographies, and Secretary of Defense speeches, he said.
Bacon encourages users to provide comments and feedback on one of Internet's
newest services. Users can provide their comments using the on-line feedback
form available as part of DefenseLINK.
DTIC, a DoD archive for defense scientific and technical information, is also
using Internet to support Reinvestment and Conversion, Business Process
Re-engineering, and other major DoD initiatives.
