Why AFPIMS?

Why publish an official website on AFPIMS?

All official government public websites should be hosted on AFPIMS because it provides automatic legal and regulatory compliance, world class security, and it’s remarkably simple to use. AFPIMS, which stands for American Forces Public Information Management System is a website content management and website hosting service open to all DOD entities. Some examples of AFPIMS websites are http://www.Defense.gov, the website for the Office of the Secretary of Defense; http://www.ndu.edu, the website for the National Defense University and http://www.af.mil the main official website of the U.S. Air Force. Navy, Marines and Coast Guard main websites are also on AFPIMS. AFPIMS is built on an open source Dot Net Nuke kernel and compiles more than a dozen contracts to add a suite of capabilities from Akamai cloud servers to Granicus email list serve functions. Together this suite of technologies offers one-stop shopping for USAF organizations that need a public website.

AFPIMS provides automatic compliance with a host of laws and regulations in addition to world class security against hackers. A host of U.S. laws govern communications between government agencies and the public. Failure to comply with these laws can result in lawsuits against government agencies. The most common lawsuit against government agencies regarding public websites in recent years relates to the Rehabilitation Act, Section 508 detailing requirements for accessibility for people with sight and hearing disabilities. Interestingly, a significant number of those lawsuits were initiated by the Department of Justice. Another government watchdog, the Government Accountability Office routinely cites legal failures of government agencies, as in this 2015 finding, “EPA engaged in covert propaganda when the agency did not identify EPA’s role as the creator of the Thunderclap message to the target audience.” Finally, a surprising number of official U.S. government websites have been hacked or defaced by adversaries. Most website managers want to focus on content and with AFPIMS, the risks of running afoul of compliance or security issues is minimized.

AFPIMS is so simple, anyone can post content after a couple hours of online training, so no web design programmers are necessary. AFPIMS is a template-based system similar to WordPress or other standard blogging websites. Users choose a template, like news, add a headline, body, tags and categories, bylines and submit. When Air University migrated to AFPIMS, the program manager was pleasantly surprised explaining that many of the people posting content were brilliant, often with PhD-level education, but they were not IT professionals. The AFPIMS and Air Force Public Affairs Agency from Texas sent instructors to Air University and personally training 100+ website contributors. Most offices have limited budgets and even more limited manpower, so hiring specialized staff solely to run a website or web page isn’t realistic. AFPIMS allows average employees to contribute directly to the website.

Some people prefer complete freedom from any templates. Certain organizations have opined they want complete freedom to design websites, and it is true, AFPIMS doesn’t offer complete freedom. However, most consider burden of legal and regulatory compliance, security and specialized employees onerous. Some organizations have tried to manage websites without addressing all these issues. Years ago, a pair of websites hosted on a dusty server in the corner of one U.S. Air Force unit were defaced and the resulted in an OSI investigation and a White House situation room briefing. Another constant risk is a violation of trademark or copyright laws. In all cases, getting a public affairs office to clear content for public release is critical. It is possible to ignore the rules of official government public websites, but it’s not career enhancing.

When considering all the pros and cons, hosting an official government website on the established DOD solution, which already hosts nearly 1,000 DOD websites is the best option available to program managers and commanders. Once a reasonable risk analysis, business case and budget are considered, AFPIMS is almost always the preferred course of action. Even if a unit decides to choose an alternate website hosting service, in all cases, they should engage the local Public Affairs Officer to ensure all publicly accessible content is properly cleared for release. AFPIMS website hosting service offers easy, one-stop shopping to ensure a properly compliant and secure official public website.