CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
Charleston AFB took part in an Air Force-wide initiative for Web content migration to be completed by all bases no later than Sept. 30.
The base's intranet Web page, the Globemaster, officially went away at 4 p.m. Aug. 15 and automatically redirects all members to the Air Force Portal any time they try to access it.
Though Charleston AFB was not the first base to complete this task, they were well-ahead of Air Mobility Command's and the Air Force's deadline of Sept. 30.
When members use the Air Force Portal, they should update their profile to be able to access their base's page by using the menu selection that says "Base-Orgs-Functional Areas." This is also how members would be able to access their base's page by logging onto Air Force Portal by using www.my.af.mil because the Charleston's intranet Web page redirects members directly to the base's page right after logging in to the site.
"I think this migration was a good idea because now it's like a one-stop shop for everything," said 1st Lt. Stephen Held, 437th Communications Squadron Network Control Center flight commander and Web content migration project officer. "Now people can access myPay, Leave Web and everything else they used to be able to do on the Globemaster."
Bases have had intranet Web pages for several years and Charleston's Globemaster, as it was known before it went away, had been in existence for more than three years with other pages before then that were similar.
The page, which was managed by the 437 CS, involved a team of about 50 people to migrate its content to the Air Force Portal. These people included Web content managers, Web content publishers and network administrators.
"The network control center provided a short, concise and comprehensive training that enabled users with no background experience in Web page development to update and load pages and information form the Globemaster to the Air Force Portal with ease," said Master Sgt. Tom Paul, 437th Mission Support Group information manager superintendent.
Plans to migrate static information from base Web pages to the Air Force Portal have been taking place for the past year.
In a letter for the start of this initiative from Lt. Gen. Michael Peterson, chief of warfighting integration and chief information officer at the Pentagon, he said, "To realize significant resource savings, reduced manpower and improved system security, we must move forward with the Web content migration effort ..."
The purpose of the initiative was to save the Air Force time and money and to make it easier for Airmen to access the information from one centralized location on any computer, not just computers on their home base's network.
"Before, Airmen couldn't access stuff on the Globemaster while they were deployed because they weren't part of the network," said Tech. Sgt. Joel Culbreth, 437 CS network administrator. "Now they can access anything on Air Force Portal without needing to be connected to the network or going through the Globemaster Web page."
Since the Globemaster was shut down about a week ago, members of the network control center have said they haven't received any complaints yet and that they are there to help make the migration as user-friendly as possible.
"Any time there's a change, people are going to resist it," said Lieutenant Held. "But soon they'll realize that this is a good change."
If there any further questions or concerns, call the 437 CS at 963-2666.