Feral Jundi

   Ok military guys and gals who are ‘avid readers’ of Feral Jundi, now is your chance. If you want to win a portion of that $30,000 prize, then you would be foolish not to submit Feral Jundi as a mobile app for this contest. lol  Just kidding.  But hey, if this blog counts as news about contractors (which is important to the military), then FJ would be a cool app to have on these new military smart phones they plan on distributing.

   Either way, FJ is already set up as a mobile app, complete with a cool little button avatar. Although I refuse to pay for the thing to be submitted to iTunes Store.  At least not yet.

   The most important part of this article though, is the idea that some of these apps that the contest produces might be Blackberry/Android/iPhone compatible.  That would be cool, and I can’t wait to see what the contest produces.  I am sure some of the stuff they make will have PMC 2.0 utility as well. –Matt

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Army Launches Software Application Development Challenge “Apps for the Army”

March 1st, 2010

The Pentagon, Arlington, VA  – 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.  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: .  Rolling registration begins March 1, 2010.  Apps must be submitted by May 15, 2010.  Questions can be addressed to CIO/G6ArmyApps@conus.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.

Story here.