MilSuite

Last updated
milSuite
Milsuite logo text version.png
Official logo for milSuite
Type of site
Professional Networking
OwnerUnited States Military
URL www.milsuite.mil
CommercialNo
RegistrationRequired and restricted to DoD personnel
Users 1 million
LaunchedOctober 1, 2009;14 years ago (2009-10-01)
Current statusactive

milSuite, launched in October 2009 by the U.S. Army PEO EIS milTech Solution office, is a collection of online applications designed to enhance secure collaboration for the United States Department of Defense. With a served user base of 2.25 million, milSuite is one of the largest networks for personal information sharing across the joint-domain. milSuite comprises ten applications, with its five primary applications being milBook, milWiki, milTube, milUniversity and milSurvey. [1]

Contents

Applications

The core applications within milSuite were launched as a collection of connected sites focused on open-source software to create DoD-audience exclusive versions of popular social media and public websites such as Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube, Skillshare, and LimeSurvey. Each applications provides a unique set of information-sharing tools that are significant communication vehicles across the joint domain. [2]

milWiki

milWiki is a knowledge management system like Wikipedia. It operates within a secure firewall accessible only to individuals with a DoD Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificate. Subject matter experts contribute to diverse topics, creating living collections of articles on milWiki to enhance organizational readiness in one centralized platform.

milBook

Launched in October 2009, milBook, powered by JIVE SBS, serves as milSuite’s professional networking tool. It fosters connections among military personnel across DoD branches, while facilitating communication for cross-functional teams in common operating environment. This enhances the military community and promotes the sharing of relevant and mission critical information.

milTube

In October 2010, milSuite launched milTube, a professional alternative to YouTube, focusing on military training and education. milTube allows Army or DoD members to share videos for viewing, downloading, or embedding within the DoD. Videos range from official content to ad-hoc productions, offering features like closed captioning and the ability to upload transcripts. [3]

milUniversity

milSuite introduced milUniversity in March 2013, an online training tool facilitating the creation and distribution of learning materials. This platform supports military personnel in accessing and completing training course for certification in a secure environment, proving crucial for military talent management and human resource personnel. [4]

milSurvey

milSurvey enables the creation and distribution of custom surveys with advance statistics for secure information collection. This application was created in August 2017, and is the approved survey tool in the Army, adhering to strict information sharing protocols outline in Army regulation 25-98, offering a secure platform to replace unsecured survey tools and mitigate potential security issues. [5]

milSuite includes additional applications such as Eureka, milAdvisor, milReads, milSuiteX, and Form Builder. Eureka is a part of the milBook application since its launch in July 2012. It operates independently and uses ideation to facilitate discussions with the intent to bring about solutions within the military’s workface. milAdvisor allows users to recommend trips, similar to trip advisor, while milReads is a platform for sharing and discussing books. milSuite X is an milSuite extension shaped by user contributions, encouraging innovations and idea to address military challenges. Additionally, FormBuilder is a tool where users can create full featured input forms on milBook.

In 2013, milSuite executed a major release with updates to its core products and a change in the application lineup, re-purposing its WordPress site as milWire. milWire, which has been removed by milSuite, was designed to be an aggregator of news and information from across milSuite and the public web. It allowed users to share original short blog posts or content from anywhere across the other milSuite sites into specific user and topic-based feeds, which other users of milSuite can then subscribe to or follow.

Creation and Usage

Individual icons for milSuite and its five major applications. Milsuite-application-logos.jpg
Individual icons for milSuite and its five major applications.

The milSuite product line grew out of a need for new knowledge management solutions for an Army workforce at Fort Monmouth, N.J., which was expected to lose a significant number of personnel due to the announcement of Base Realignment and Closure, 2005. Original use of an internal MediaWiki and internal WordPress site from 2007-08 focused on building and updating living knowledge archives, the expertise of departing leaders and the specialized knowledge of subject matter experts. [6]

milBook was launched in the fall of 2009 to provide "a centralized location for Army personnel to discuss military topics that were previously done through potentially insecure emails, chats, wikis and blogs." [7] The former, stand-alone MediaWiki and WordPress offerings were named milWiki and milBlog and joined with milBook to create milSuite.

The military has leveraged milSuite for several significant collaborative efforts since its launch. The United States Army Training and Doctrine Command begin using milWiki in 2010 to create online versions of field manuals in a wiki format, that could be contributed to by any soldier. [8] The United States Army Forces Command partnered with milSuite in 2011 to develop a customized Virtual Training Portal for Soldiers using milWiki and milTube. [9] In 2013, milBook was a key component in an initiative by the United States Air Force's Air Mobility Command to host and conduct conferences and courses virtually as a cost-cutting measure. [10]

On October 3, 2016, the Army Office of Business Transformation launched Army Ideas for Innovation (AI2) as a replacement for the Army Suggestion Program (ASP), which was suspended in 2013. [11] Created at the direction of the United States Under Secretary of the Army, AI2 is a crowd-source innovation program built on the milSuite platform. [12]

The United States Air Force launched its own idea submission site for Airmen on milSuite in May 2017. The website, which directly supported Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein’s Focus Area number one – Revitalizing Air Force Squadrons, encouraged Airmen to address specific topics presented in the form of challenges and to help identify the best ideas by voting, commenting and sharing. [13]

milSuite was featured as a secure alternative to public social media for Department of Defense collaboration at the Defense Information School's 2017 Social Media Workshop. [14]

Contributors

milSuite is accessible to active military personnel, DoD civilian employees, and contractor employees, representing the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The community, which includes participants at all levels of employment and military rank - from government interns to general officers - registered its 350,000th user in September 2013. [15]

Army Convergence

Within the framework of the Army Roadmap, milSuite actively participates in the broader concept of Army Convergence. This aligns with the Army's goals of digital transformation, placing a strong emphasis on enhancing communication and information sharing.  As outlined in the Unified Network Plan, milSuite contributes significantly to the development of a unified and cohesive military network.

Cloud Migration History

On May 23, 2018, milSuite executed a major update and migration from their traditional hosting environment to the DISA milCloud environment. [16] The migration allowed milSuite to be more agile as a service with the ability to scale as necessary to support a growing number of users while simultaneously keeping maintenance costs low.

milSuite successfully underwent another major migration to the cArmy Cloud on August 25, 2023. This migration brings numerous long-term benefits to the milSuite program, encompassing both technical and strategic advantages. It positions milSuite to leverage cutting edge technologies that did not exist prior. These advancements will enhance the overall program and improve the user experience.

Awards and recognition

In 2009, milWiki received a Category III: Technology Dimension Army Knowledge Management Award, at the Army's annual LandwarNet Conference, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. [17]

At the following year's LandWarNet conference, in 2010, milBook claimed the top Army Knowledge Management award. [18]

milWiki was the supporting application for the U.S. Training and Doctrine Command's (TRADOC) U.S. Army Field Manual Wiki project, which was recognized by the White House administration in 2010 as an Open Government Initiative. [19]

In 2011, Government Computer News named milSuite one of its honorable mentions in the program's 24th Annual agency awards for information technology initiatives. [20]

milSuite was featured in the Fall 2023 Publication of USAASC’s Army AL&T professional journal

Historic Milestones [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Wiki software is collaborative software that runs a wiki, which allows the users to create and collaboratively edit pages or entries via a web browser. A wiki system is usually a web application that runs on one or more web servers. The content, including previous revisions, is usually stored in either a file system or a database. Wikis are a type of web content management system, and the most commonly supported off-the-shelf software that web hosting facilities offer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intranet</span> Network of private resources in an organization

An intranet is a computer network for sharing information, easier communication, collaboration tools, operational systems, and other computing services within an organization, usually to the exclusion of access by outsiders. The term is used in contrast to public networks, such as the Internet, but uses the same technology based on the Internet protocol suite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Defense Information Systems Agency</span> US Department of Defense combat support agency

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), known as the Defense Communications Agency (DCA) until 1991, is a United States Department of Defense (DoD) combat support agency composed of military, federal civilians, and contractors. DISA provides information technology (IT) and communications support to the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, the military services, the combatant commands, and any individual or system contributing to the defense of the United States.

Social software, also known as social apps or social platform includes communications and interactive tools that are often based on the Internet. Communication tools typically handle capturing, storing and presenting communication, usually written but increasingly including audio and video as well. Interactive tools handle mediated interactions between a pair or group of users. They focus on establishing and maintaining a connection among users, facilitating the mechanics of conversation and talk. Social software generally refers to software that makes collaborative behaviour, the organisation and moulding of communities, self-expression, social interaction and feedback possible for individuals. Another element of the existing definition of social software is that it allows for the structured mediation of opinion between people, in a centralized or self-regulating manner. The most improved area for social software is that Web 2.0 applications can all promote co-operation between people and the creation of online communities more than ever before. The opportunities offered by social software are instant connections and opportunities to learn. An additional defining feature of social software is that apart from interaction and collaboration, it aggregates the collective behaviour of its users, allowing not only crowds to learn from an individual but individuals to learn from the crowds as well. Hence, the interactions enabled by social software can be one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many.

TWiki is a Perl-based structured wiki application, typically used to run a collaboration platform, knowledge or document management system, a knowledge base, or team portal. Users can create wiki pages using the TWiki Markup Language, and developers can extend wiki application functionality with plugins.

The social web is a set of social relations that link people through the World Wide Web. The social web encompasses how websites and software are designed and developed in order to support and foster social interaction. These online social interactions form the basis of much online activity including online shopping, education, gaming and social networking services. The social aspect of Web 2.0 communication has been to facilitate interaction between people with similar tastes. These tastes vary depending on who the target audience is, and what they are looking for. For individuals working in the public relation department, the job is consistently changing and the impact is coming from the social web. The influence held by the social network is large and ever changing.

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End-user development (EUD) or end-user programming (EUP) refers to activities and tools that allow end-users – people who are not professional software developers – to program computers. People who are not professional developers can use EUD tools to create or modify software artifacts and complex data objects without significant knowledge of a programming language. In 2005 it was estimated that by 2012 there would be more than 55 million end-user developers in the United States, compared with fewer than 3 million professional programmers. Various EUD approaches exist, and it is an active research topic within the field of computer science and human-computer interaction. Examples include natural language programming, spreadsheets, scripting languages, visual programming, trigger-action programming and programming by example.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoho Office Suite</span> Online suite of business management software

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of wikis</span> History of wiki collaborative platforms

The history of wikis began in 1994, when Ward Cunningham gave the name "WikiWikiWeb" to the knowledge base, which ran on his company's website at c2.com, and the wiki software that powered it. The wiki went public in March 1995, the date used in anniversary celebrations of the wiki's origins. c2.com is thus the first true wiki, or a website with pages and links that can be easily edited via the browser, with a reliable version history for each page. He chose "WikiWikiWeb" as the name based on his memories of the "Wiki Wiki Shuttle" at Honolulu International Airport, and because "wiki" is the Hawaiian word for "quick".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diplopedia</span> Online wiki encyclopedia of the United States Department of State

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">DoDTechipedia</span> Wiki of the United States Department of Defense

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References

  1. "Program Executive Office Command Control Communications-Tactical" . Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  2. "Fall 2023" . Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  3. Ackerman, Spencer. "No Ghostriding Allowed on Army's SFW YouTube". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  4. "MilUniversity adds to Army online learning opportunities". www.army.mil. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  5. ""Users should be able to leverage the best capability for their mission regardless of the underlying platform"" . Retrieved 2024-01-03.
  6. CHIPS - milSuite Promotes Efficiency Across the Enterprise…
  7. nbcnews.com - U.S. Army launches Facebook-like site
  8. Yahoo! Voices - US Army Uses Wikipedia-Like Forum to Write Doctrine: All Soldiers Invited Archived 2012-07-28 at archive.today
  9. CHIPS - milSuite Promotes Efficiency Across the Enterprise…
  10. Don't GoToMeeting: How AMC saves the dough
  11. Army needs innovative ideas, says under secretary
  12. Army Ideas for Innovation Program (press release)
  13. Air Force announces squadron revitalization idea site
  14. DINFOS 2017 Social Media Workshop
  15. Government TMCnet.com - MilSuite Hits Milestone for Unique Users on Military Social Media Site
  16. "milCloud 2.0 Sunset Success". Hosting and Compute Center. Retrieved 2023-07-27.
  17. Army.mil milWiki receives Army's top knowledge management honor
  18. milBook scores top knowledge management award
  19. Open Government Initiative Archived 2017-01-21 at the Wayback Machine
  20. GCN Announces the 24th Annual GCN Award Winners
  21. Information obtained from a post made by an official milSuite administrator.