US Navy uses Lotus Sametime to track Bin Laden

The US Navy has been using Lotus Sametime instant messaging with great success, and are now extending those collaborative capabilities to British, Canadian, German and New Zealand forces.

Here’s an excerpt from the article in InformationWeek:

“Once the effort to track down Osama bin Laden became a global effort, the Navy demonstrated the technology to allied decision-makers, who were eager to get on board. The Navy set up a separate “coalition network” to ensure the security of its classified data, and Lotus personnel worked with allied forces to equip their ships as quickly as possible. Even now, Lotus technicians are on board allied ships deploying the technology, shoring up an unprecedented collaborative military environment. “We’re able to provide more valuable data and circulate that data to allies much faster than in the past,” says Martin Jordan, allied interoperability systems engineer for the U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.”

A very real-world example of how instant messaging is being used for more than idle chit-chat.

Jeff Hester
BigBlueBall.com