Army Announces Apps for the Army Competition

Just last week the DoD changed its policy to allow troops to use social networks. Today comes word the Army will run an apps contest much like those run for the Washington DC, the US, NYC and other jurisdictions. This being the Army, the rules are a bit different - and a bit cloudy. Apps are due May 15.

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.

- Registration/rules/etc.
- press release and other goodies from iStrategyLabs, who is running it

ZeeMaps to Charge for Some “Power” Functions

ZeeMaps, a simple tool to “map your lists,” has been free to date. Yesterday the site sent out an e-mail (also posted on its blog) noting that to keep the service up, several once free functions would now require a paid subscription:

  * Bulk Edits (Annotations, Markers, Regions)
  * Delete ALL Markers, Delete Some Markers

Non-subscription users can do these things, just one at a time. Pricing varies based on time commitment: three ($9.95/month), six ($7.95/month), or twelve ($6.95/month) months at a time. Subscribers can also remove Google ads from their maps. ZeeMaps is one of the first of the free Google Maps apps to move to a “freemium” model. I suspect we’ll see others make the move, too.

Webinno 25 Tonight, Free, in Cambridge

I am so bummed I can’t attend this event tonight at the Royal Sonesta Cambridge, 40 Edwin H Land Blvd., Cambridge, MA 02142
from 6:30-9pm.

The folks from Geolenz will be showing their app. There’s also an interesting list of other participating players related to geo: “In recognition of March as Mass Mobile Month (#massmobmonth), one of our Main Dish presenters and two of our Side Dish demonstrators are mobile and location-centric services.”

Web Innovo

informal gathering of people interested in internet and mobile innovation - free and open to all in the community. This event includes a special optional breakout session entitled “Serial Web Entrepreneurs’ Founding Stories.” Following a brief intermission after the Main Dish presentations, Wade Roush of Xconomy will lead a discussion with three serial entrepreneurs sharing their multiple founding stories. Steven Kane, Tom Gerace, and David Cancel have all successfully founded and sold web startups… and now they’re doing it again and again. The topics will cover everything from attracting early team members to honing in on the right idea. Intermixing practical advice and inspirational anecdotes, the discussion will look to uncover the key ingredients to getting a web startup off of the ground from people who have done it multiple times.

CBC’s Spark on LBS, Social Media

Spark is the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) radio show/podcast about technology and culture. This week it looks at among other things, location sharing apps (Foursquare) and privacy. There’s an interview with one of the fellows behind PleaseRobMe.com and a happy user of Foursquare. The discussion about personal brands and the new definition of “friends” is also very informative.

via @jgombita

Map Analysis: Android Filling AT&T Holes on the Map

Myxer sells ringtones and puts out maps of which types of phones are purchasing its goods: iPhones or Android phones. The January report (pdf) notes states where Adroid outsells iPhone. VentureBeat offers up an analysis as to why midwest states tend to be more Android heavy: weak AT&T 3G coverage.

- VentureBeat