Disclaimer: iStrategyLabs does not represent the views and opinions of the US Army. The views and opinions contained in this post are to be taken solely as those of Peter Corbett, CEO, iStrategyLabs.
Ever since we launched Apps for Democracy for DC’s Office of the CTO back in September 2008 the world has been a-buzz with “Apps for” contests. We recently released a guide for how to create your own in order to make this kind of innovation method more accessible to people around the world. There are now about a dozen of these innovation contests being run by cities, national governments and various non-profits.
Today I’m happy to announce a new Apps initiative – one which iStrategyLabs has been contracted to create with the Army’s CIO/G6. A special thank you goes out to Tim O’Reilly – who envisioned this program and served as an advisor/connector to make it happen. Below you’ll find full details from the Army’s official media advisory (download as .DOC), and a summary is as follows:
- A media and bloggers’ roundtable will take place March 3 at 1:30 pm in the Pentagon, Room 1E462. Lieutenant General Jeffery Sorenson (Army CIO) will discuss Apps for the Army and take questions. To attend the roundtable in person, or if you plan to call in, please contact: Ms. Ashley McCall-Washington at 703-614-1649 or ashley.mccall1@us.army.mil
- The competition runs from March 1st to May 15st 2010
- There are 40 employee cash awards totaling $30,000 for mobile and web apps
- Only 100 initial teams can participate
- Awards will be announced in June, with public demonstrations at LandWarNet
- Registration forms and other details can be found on AKO: http://www.army.mil/ciog6/armyapps
- Forge.mil will serve as a collaborative software repository
- RACE – a cloud based development sandbox will be provided. Participants can access a Windows server, Linux server and mobile app emulation software for Android and Blackberry. iPhone apps will need to be developed outside of RACE.
- MilBook’s Apps for the Army group will serve as the core collaboration space for all participants
- If you’re on twitter, use the hashtag #apps4army to follow the conversation
Video Overview of Apps for the Army:
Apps for the Army Logo & Banner:
Full text of the media release:
Army Launches Software Application Development Challenge “Apps for the Army”
The Pentagon, Arlington, VA (March 1st, 2010) – Today the Army announced its first internal applications development challenge, dubbed Apps for the Army or A4A. Open to all Soldiers and Department of the Army civilians, A4A offers Army personnel the opportunity to demonstrate their software development skills and creativity. In return, the Army hopes to improve its current capabilities or to add new ones – all through the ingenuity of its people.
“We’re building a culture of collaboration among our Army community to encourage smarter, better and faster technical solutions to meet operational needs,” said Army Chief Information Officer/G-6 Lt. Gen. Jeff Sorenson.
“Soldiers and Army civilians will be creating new mobile and web applications of value for their peers—tools that enhance warfighting effectiveness and business productivity today,” Sorenson said. “And, we’re rewarding their innovation with recognition and cash.”
Participation in A4A is limited to the first 100 Army personnel (active duty, Army Reserve and Army National Guard on active duty, and civilians) who enroll. Teamwork is encouraged but not required. The Army will recognize the top submissions at the LandWarNet Conference in August 2010. Winners will receive monetary awards; the total cash pool is $30,000.
A4A applications may tackle any aspect of Army IT – distributed training, battle command, career management, continuing education, or news and information distribution, for example. A4A will further deviate from traditional development practices by utilizing the latest in collaborative development media.
“Apps for the Army features an innovative cloud computing service for participants to use during software creation,” Sorenson noted. “This is key because it eliminates the constraints of hardware provisioning prior to prototype evaluation.”
The service, provided by the Defense Information Systems Agency and known as the Rapid Access Computing Environment (RACE), offers access to on-demand virtual Windows and Linux development environments.  Participants will be able to pursue Web application development using all available programming languages supported by Windows Server and the Linux, Apache, MYSQL and PHP (LAMP) frameworks. They also will be able to build emulated Blackberry, iPhone and Android applications.
Forge.mil will serve as the collaborative software repository for competing teams. Â The tools inherent in milBook and AKO will facilitate the cross-pollination of ideas, problems and solutions relevant to the Apps for the Army initiative.
The registration form, rules and instructions are located at the Apps for the Army Web site on the AKO portal: http://www.army.mil/ciog6/armyapps.  Rolling registration begins March 1, 2010.  Apps must be submitted by May 15, 2010. Questions can be addressed to CIO/G6ArmyApps@conus.army.mil.
A media and bloggers’ roundtable will take place March 3 at 1:30 pm in the Pentagon, Room 1E462. To attend the roundtable in person, or if you plan to call in, please contact: Ms. Ashley McCall-Washington at 703-614-1649 or ashley.mccall1@us.army.mil
For general media inquiries, please contact: Margaret McBride, 703-693-3067, margaret.mcbride@us.army.mil.
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Peter,
I think this is clear, but just want to double (triple?) check: this is open only to Army Direct employees, correct? Others, such as contractors who work with Army or other DoD Departments, may not participate.
Confirm?
Assuming this is true, I offer a comment in the hopes that you may be better able to get the right ears and minds on it than am I:: After considerable time in the Contractor world, including time working inside Mil offices and having a strong desire to see their problems solved, I find it incredibly frustrating and depressing that it is so hard for innovators who could solve problems to connect with those inside who are working the related strategies. So many factors going into it, including the lack of generally accessible RFP and the many large, innovation-unfriendly, and conflict-riddent contracting companies on the path between any innovative idea and the gov decision-maker who might see its value. Not to mention the work overload Mil staff are now carrying.
I would love to see short, focused contests like this open to all. A Mil/Gov insider could describe a problem, someone like you could create a contest aimed at finding innovative solutions to it, and the innovation-full community could go to town on it. I bet we’d see at least an order of magnitude fast, and better, solution-finding. And people not already inside would be harnessed to do it.
Just a thought. ;-) Awesome contest, anyway.
-AJV
@AJV Confirmed – it’s only for Army employees not contractors. I do agree with you that we need to open these kinds of things up to anyone who can create innovative solutions….this is the pilot for Apps for the Army and while there are no promises we’ll be exploring how to expand its scope to other groups in the future.
[...] founder and CEO Peter Corbett describes on the company’s blog how the contest will work. It starts with a press conference and media (and blogger) roundtable on [...]
So can the app be anything that is relevant to the Army as a whole or can it be more specific for a particular section (say PAO, G6/S6, etc). Furthermore, can it be something large scale (like an Operating System) which may take longer than the 15 May dealine or is this mostly geared towards social media and other smaller scale innovations?
Thanks,
JWA
@JWA Army wide and section specific apps are of interest. A large scale/longer term build like an OS is certainly of interest – the key will be to have some form of working prototype by the deadline to show off. If it shows significant promise I’m sure the judges will score it well.
@PM Cool, thanks. I started working on one back in August, so I should at least have something viable for the judges to play with. Thanks much!
JWA
Congrats Peter, this is a great move by the Army to have your team lead this collaborative charge. The strategic communications team I’m a part of developed the Army’s iPhone App, and I can’t wait to see what Apps come out of this contest. Also, just saw this post pop on Techmeme, so you’re getting nice traction … well deserved.
Jeff Crites
Online [CORE] Community Manager
Army.mil (contractor: L-3/MPRI)
[...] start page for the Web. Today, the Army has teamed up with DC-based iStrategyLabs to launch a developer contest called Apps for the Army (A4A). The contest looks Army personal to create a web or mobile application that helps the Army [...]
Simply put: Open this up to developers such as myself.
I have a “day job” but would be quite happy to assist my country (and incidentally my former branch of service) in my “spare time” (when the “honey dos” are done of course). I am professional programmer of 28 years and a former Army officer (Khepry Quixote is my “pen name”). I am presently writing Android apps in the evenings as a means of keeping up with the advances in my profession while I pay the bills with my “day job” of writing C# and Java apps for my present employer.
While I may be too old to dodge bullets in the current conflicts, I would like to assist my country as best I can using my hard-knock, real-world programming skillset.
Open up the Apps for the Army initiative!
You might be surprised how voluminous and vibrant your apps might be when you “crowd-source” their initial development.
Khepry Quixote
Software Developer
@Khepry we’d love to. This is the pilot program and in order to get it out the door we had to conform to certain regulations. I too look forward to opening up Apps for the Army to all those passionate about coding for America.
[...] Army Launches Software Application Development Challenge “Apps for the Army” [...]
[...] the Army has contracted with iStrategyLabs for a contest called “Apps for the Army,” or A4A. Open to soldiers and civilian employees of the Army, the contest encourages [...]
[...] overview of the program can be found here; or in video form here. Army Deputy CIO, Mike Krieger, discusses the Army’s goals for the [...]
[...] können. Daneben hat die Armee mit iStrategyLabs einen Ideen-Wettbewerb – “Apps für die Armee” oder A4A – gestartet. Soldaten und zivile Mitarbeiter der Armee werden so ermutigt, neue [...]
Well, since I can’t participate, here are some of my ideas and hopefully someone else can bring them to fruition:
SALUTE reporter (pulls location and time from device, use camera to add pictures, etc.)
APFT tracker – tracks progress over time with bars / graphs, perhaps collaborative. Preferences to set age / gender to generate proper scoring.
Flash card app for studying ranks / units / NATO alphabet, etc.
App to identify materiel (e.g. take a picture of a plane, have a database of photos of various nations’ equipment to compare)
Triage apps for mechanics, medics, armorers, etc. (interactive troubleshooting similar to charts in the back of TMs)
[...] the Army has contracted with iStrategyLabs for a contest called “Apps for the Army,” or A4A. Open to soldiers and civilian employees of the Army, the contest encourages [...]
Hello Everyone I am working on apps and I would like to put together a development team to have some fun and hopefully get some cash awards splitting awards equally across the team. I am eligible to enter and I would ask if you are interested please send email to jpedroza_web@hotmail.com so we can get started. Please let me know what areas you feel confident in e.g. iPhone, Android, Palm, or Windows Mobile. I look forward to working with you. I am not concerned if you are government or military, the functionality is what is critical.
Have A Great Day!
@john make sure you post your ‘call for collaborators” to MilBook as well: https://www.kc.army.mil/book/groups/apps-for-the-army-d
@larry great contribution!
Continuing my last message…
In addition, non-military are also welcome to join in the fun! send email to jpedroza_web@hotmail.com motivation, capability, and creativity is what is needed. We can make a difference!
I look forward to hearing from you!
[...] the Army has contracted with iStrategyLabs for a contest called “Apps for the Army,” or A4A. Open to soldiers and civilian employees of the Army, the contest encourages [...]
[...] joined the ranks of government agencies courting developers by announcing a new competition called “Apps for the Army” (A4A). The competition aims to promote some fresh ideas and practical web and mobile applications for use [...]
[...] of other successful application competitions, such as Apps for Democracy and the recently launched Apps for the Army, this is sure to encourage numerous developers to create innovative solutions to improve online [...]
[...] of the CTO and all the apps contests that have spun out from it…we’ve been working on Apps for the Army too. This one is much less serious! (NOTE: we’re not applying our full contest methodology [...]
[...] Because these “app innovation contests” tend to yield such high returns in terms of the number of applications developed, they have begun sprouting up left and right. There is, for example, the Apps for Healthy Kids competition: “$40,000 in prizes to create innovative, fun and engaging software tools and games that encourage children directly or through their parents to make more nutritious food choices and be more physically active.” There is Apps for America – rounds one and two. The Knight Foundation and FCC are launching the Apps for Inclusion Challenge. There is also the Stockholm Challenge and the We Media PitchIt! Challenge. Last year we also saw the UC Berkeley Human Rights Center Mobile Challenge, the USAID Development 2.0 Challenge, and the Social Actions Change the Web Challenge. Even the US Military has an apps contest now. [...]
[...] Posted in Uncategorized by rmt on May 8, 2010 This app is an entry that I put together for the Apps for the Army competition, an app-making initiative by the Army to encourage innovation in software [...]
[...] military’s bottom line is measured in lives, not in dollars. That is why the “Apps for the Army” effort that Peter Corbett is leading along with Lieutenant General Sorenson in order to get [...]
[...] If you’re interested in learning more about Enterprise 2.0 for the military you can read Blake Hall’s speech, or check out Peter Corbett’s Apps for the Army. [...]
[...] heeft Peter daarna in vele initiatieven deelgenomen die minder eenvoudig van de grond kwamen. Apps for the Army is een voorbeeld dat veel lobbywerk heeft vereist, echter daardoor niet minder succesvol was en [...]
I have made over 40 manual apps for the military just look up Michael Hart in the android market!
[...] start page for the Web. Today, the Army has teamed up with DC-based iStrategyLabs to launch a developer contest called Apps for the Army (A4A). The contest offers Army personnel an opportunity to create a web or mobile application that [...]
[...] also doing Apps for the Army. When application development challenges wrap up and all of the apps are shown, that’s when [...]