Application Development Contest Launched by US Army

In an effort to encourage collaborative, grassroots development efforts, the US Army has launched an internal application development content that is open to soldiers and Army civilian employees. Apps will be judged on six criteria, including usefulness, intuitive usability, appeal, inventiveness, effect and viability.

Army CIO Jeff Sorenson issued a statement about the contest, first mentioned at the Gov 2.0 Summit in November of 2009, which stated that the Army is “building a culture of collaboration among our Army community to encourage smarter, better, and faster technical solutions to meet operational needs.” Participants will be limited to the first 100 Army personnel who enroll.

Forty winning submissions will be awarded from a pool of $30,000 in prize money, and will be announced at an Army IT conference later this year. Some of the apps will be used by the Army, based on how well they meet Army security requirements.

The Department of Defense is providing developers with the use of its Information Systems Agency’s private cloud, known as the Rapid Access Computing Environment, at no cost to participants.