Officials ponder DMS' future

Defense Message System Web site

Defense Department information technology officials are conducting an "open, senior-level dialogue" about the Defense Message System, a senior Pentagon official said. Those talks could open the door to other messaging systems rather than mandating Defense agencies use DMS.

There are certain areas, especially in military operations, where "DMS has let us down in its present version," said Owen Wormser, principal director for spectrum, space, sensors and command, control and communications in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (C3I).

"There are those that are...saying [DMS] is not the environment of the 21st century," he said during an Aug. 8 breakfast with industry representatives sponsored by Input, a Chantilly, Va.-based market research firm. Some people are pushing for the ability to do chat rooms, secure e-mail, or secure Extensible Markup Language via browsers.

DMS is the secure messaging system that is replacing DOD's Automatic Digital Network, commonly known as Autodin.

Those people are saying that DOD should move away from DMS' structured directories.

Wormser stressed that it is unlikely that DOD will ever kill the multimillion-dollar DMS.

"I don't think you will see a clear decision," he said. "I think what you will see is an opening of the door that says, 'Why do I keep doing DMS?'"

Therefore, DMS' advocates have to come forward and address user concerns such as undelivered messages, he said.

"The opening of the door is important. We haven't had a open, senior-level dialogue about what we are doing in a long time," he said. The discussions should be a "comprehensive dialogue about what are we doing, why are we doing it, how much are we spending, does it add value, what performance metrics are we using. — That will have to take place."