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When blogs first started to flourish, around 2002 to 2004, not surprisingly a lot of guys deployed to various parts of the world started blogs. From 2005 to 2008, it was very common to come across a Milblog written by say, a Staff Sergeant or junior officer that was basically an online journal of their deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. Eventually, concerns with operational security and a tendency of chains of command to be wary of potential bad press led to social media guidance that made running a blog quite cumbersome. It’s hard enough to write a decent blog without having to comply with directives at the same time.

The huge impact of Facebook, and now Twitter as well, has also seen the influence of the lone blogger wane. It’s just easier to share with your friends over those networks. And finally, conglomeration has had an impact. It used to be one guy could start a blog and become an Instapundit, an Ace, a Talking Points Memo. Instead now, both legacy media hire content providers (that is, bloggers) or e-zines are formed. Buzzfeed takes content from just about anyone. And then there’s reddit.

So the day of the blog is likely past.

But a funny thing happened along the way to blogging obsolescence. A lot of people found out they liked having a forum to discuss issues. Discussion boards run for the benefit of junior soldiers soon built incredibly strong communities. Ideas were shared, argued, torn down, and built up. Where previously a junior officer’s only chance to write and publish was likely in his branch’s monthly journal, these independent forums were far easier to submit to, and far quicker to publish.

And that trend has continued. And those same junior officers are now field grade officers. And they are looking to elevate the discussion from the purely tactical level at with they previously operated, to the operational and strategic levels they are now faced with.

A few years back, there was a short lived Army blog called the League of Disgruntled Majors.

Now comes three of what we can only describe as the League of Gruntled Majors. Majors Cavanaugh, Finney, and McRae are three among the many who seek to use online forums to further the profession of arms. Not just tell war stories, but to actually influence the shape and future of Army thinking.

A core group of mid-grade officers are changing the way professional discussions, doctrinal analysis, and institutional innovations take place in the Army. Like the famous interwar dialogue between Patton and Eisenhower that later found battlefield application during WWII, this group is attempting to foster a smarter, more relevant Army. Unlike those dialogues, they are using the internet and military blogging to drive change and new ideas, aligning with the culture of innovation that defense leaders hope will ensure advantage over potential future adversaries. Initially born of tactical-level information sharing on junior-officer message boards during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, this movement is comprised of officers now working at the field-grade officer level—Major through Colonel—having traded tactical discussions for institutional ones.

They aren’t the only ones. The article mentions the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum, from where we’re going to steal materiel for a post tomorrow.

Another such organization is CIMSEC, the Center for International Maritime Security.

These organizations, all largely “organic” in that they sprang to life independent of any official high level sanction from their services, are rapidly gaining respect as vibrant centers of thought.

So the blog is dead. And yet mightier than ever before.