Adding The AW2 Blog to My.Army.Mil

By COL Kevin Arata, DoD DMA

Screenshot of My.Army.mil Homepage

In an effort to create a more personalized browsing experience, the U.S. Army has launched, My.Army.Mil, the first user-customized Web site under the Department of Defense.

My.Army.Mil offers visitors the ability to sign-in and create a personalized destination for official Army information, ranging from traditional news stories to up-to-the-minute social media updates. Members of the AW2 community can even easily add the AW2 Blog to My.Army.Mil to make the Web site a one stop destination for all your Army news needs.

Really, the creation of this site is for you — the user. We want you to feel like this is your page, not just the Army’s page that we are thrusting upon you. We hope that this customizable ability on My.Army.mil makes you want to come to the Army’s Web site. You have the ability to make this page match your personality. So if you want to add an RSS feed to your pages from outside sources — that’s ok. If you want to get news from your favorite Army installations, that is an option as well. We want you to make this your one-stop shop for news — how you like it — as opposed to how we think you like it. I encourage you to play around with the widgets and see what interests you.

To create your own customized My.Army.Mil page, simply sign-in and authenticate with Google Friend Connect (AIM, Google, Twitter, Yahoo and OpenID) or AKO (Army Knowledge Online) username and password. Once you have signed up and created your account, you will be prompted to add and arrange a series of widgets to suit your specific Army information needs.

Here are some of the widgets that you can add and move on your My.Army.Mil page:

• An All Services widget with feeds from the Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy, and Coast Guard.
• Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube widgets that sync with many Army organizations
• My Army News widget with customized feeds from Commands, Corps, Divisions,
• Installations, and traditional news sections
• A Features widget highlighting stories of Valor, Army events, history and heritage
• AKO (Army Knowledge Online) widget to log-in to AKO
• Video widget with official Army videos, newscasts and raw footage
• RSS widget that can pull multiple feeds from external sites

To add the AW2 Blog to your My.Army.Mil page, follow these simple instructions:

1. Log in to My.Army.Mil with either your AKO username and password or another supported service such as Google, Yahoo, AIM, Twitter, or OpenID.
2. Click on the “Add Widgets” button that appears below where it says “HOOAH! Welcome.”
3. A menu will appear. From the “News” column on the far left, click on “RSS.” The RSS widget should appear in the “Widgets Added” column on the far right. Click save.
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you should see a widget box with the title “RSS” and a sub heading of “Front Page RSS Feed.” On the top line where it says “RSS” you should also see two intersecting arrows, two overlapping gears, and an X. Click on the overlapping gears.
5. Once you have clicked on the overlapping gears, a drop down menu should appear with a web address for Army.mil’s RSS feed. Delete the web address and copy the AW2 RSS address (http://aw2.armylive.dodlive.mil/index.php/feed/). Paste the AW2 RSS address into the box. Click save.
6. You have successfully added the AW2 Blog to My.Army.Mil.
7. If you would like to move the AW2 Blog widget to another location on your page, hover your mouse over the intersecting arrows and hold the left mouse button down. Drag the widget to the location that you want and release the left mouse button.

For directions that include screenshots of each step, please click here.

Thanks for taking the time to check out My.Army.mil. I hope you find this is a useful Web site for you!

For additional information on My.Army.Mil, please visit http://www.Army.mil/MyArmy or contact ocpa.outreach@us.army.mil.