Social Media in the trenches!

The driving interest in social media tools has reached the trenches! Security has long been the number one concern with the use of social media in the federal government. However, the demand for social tools from military personnel and their families continues to rise. The Department of Defense and intelligence agencies skirt around security concerns by establishing their own internal social networks. This includes developing their own software applications to provide services replicating the capabilities of Facebook and other social tools. This activity is supported in the General Services Administration’s (GSA) FedSpace. The logic is that social media tools are acceptable in this application because all activity is kept within the security of the agency’s firewall.

My question – Is this still “Social” media when it is governed behind a firewall and under the watchful eye of the organization?

Kenyon, H. (2010). Government waking up to social media, survey finds. Federal Computer Week, Retrieved from http://fcw.com/Articles/2010/09/24/Study-Outlines-Government-Social-Media-Use.aspx