Military Enlists Open Source Community 131
jmwci1 writes "The US Defense Department is enlisting an open source approach to software development — an about-face for such a historically top-down organization. In recent weeks, the military has launched a collaborative platform called Forge.mil for its developers to share software, systems components and network services. The agency also signed an agreement with the Open Source Software Institute to allow 50 internally developed workforce management applications to be licensed to other government agencies, universities and companies."
Re:How dare they? (Score:5, Interesting)
No Joke. In 2001 the US Marine Corps disbanded the 4067 MOS. While we used to have Marines, in uniform, writing code for a wide assortment of tasks (from menial office apps to classified COM vaults and even some flight system work in ADA), we moved to consultants.
Replacing a $14,400/year Corporal with a $120,000 civilian. One who doesn't have to take an oath to support and defend the Constitution.
-Rick
Navy has done this for years. (Score:4, Interesting)
Way back when, I would access the Naval Research Lab's websites for copies of OPIE (a one-time password suite), their IPSec code, their IPv6 code and their IPv4/IPv6 multiprotocol suite.
These days, they have some nice stuff [navy.mil] in the areas of multicasting, wireless routing and network testing tools.
Even the DoD's Office of Information Security Research [mit.edu] has done Open Source work before, publishing one of the early IPSec implementations publicly through MIT.
So other than the DoD finally putting onto a more official level a practice that has been commonplace for decades (the sharing of source under true open source licenses), what exactly is new here? That the politicians at the top of the food chain figured something out? That's just a freak event, a result of the statistical nature of quantum mechanics.
Re:How dare they? (Score:3, Interesting)
It is a damn shame. I was on the other side of the fence and I can tell you, it's a lot harder to get something done when you've got to ask/beg a civilian to do something for you. He doesn't care what the 1stSgt told you to do, he's not in the chain of command.
Or even worse, the civilian in charge of our local network was a high ranking civilian. He actually had more on-base clout than our regiment's CO. It took *months* to get network jacks opened, forget about adding new devices. Buying an fscking printer took four months to install (network jacks are restricted by mac address). Of course, I got around this, but that's not the point. :-)
On the other hand, if it was handled by the Marines you more than likely can call and get a brother on the phone who'll help you out.
Forge Mill (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyway- i'd say its a good idea. I don't think they'd use it for anything mission critical, like jet fighter software. Only windows 98 cuts the cake for that kind of high tech business.
Its a step forward, and its free, so why not?
Re:How dare they? (Score:3, Interesting)
Do you think we need programmers that take an oath to support and defend the Constitution?
Next time someone runs into a critical fault in a COM shack in the south Pacific, see what the response time is getting a civilian in Virginia out of bed, into the office, and working on the problem as opposed to having a trained and proficient Marine on site to fix the issue.
Do you think programmers need to maintain the high standards of fitness required by the Marines? I guarantee you that wearing a uniform makes it harder to code (it's much easier in flip flops and shorts).
There are benefits and detractors. On the benefit side, coding standards are non-optional. There is room for variety, but if there is one thing you get used to in the Marine Corps, it is standards. Also, as a coder in the MC you get to know your co-workers exceptionally well. Not only do you work on the same projects, but in the event of attack, every Marine is a riffleman first, so you may well be laying supression fire for eachother. And finally, with 1-3 year tours, you are garunteed to have to go through project handoffs, so project plans are kept small, requirements are documented, and life, as far as programming is concerned, is damn good.
Also, while you might find the rigorous PT off putting, man was it nice to be in great shape. A 3 mile jog in 20 minutes flat, 26 pull ups and 100 crunches in 2 mintues... man do I miss those days. I'm growing a damn dunlap here! Luckily, I'm moving to a new office building on Friday and I'll have an on-site Gym again :)
On the down side, the Enlisted Marine Corps is largely consisting of people who either couldn't or didn't want to go to college. So you are quite often surrounded by people with little experience and/or education. To get into the 4067 field you needed a GT score of 110 or higher. People who made it into the 4067 field who had troubles coding were often refered to as "110ers".
It sure wasn't peaches and cream, but it was a pretty kick ass experience for a guy like me who had no dreams of college.
It's unlikely that those civilians are actually paid $120k, but you're right that they make more than $14k.
Correct. They are contractors, their BILL rate was $120,000/year.
I think that (in many cases) it's an awful shame to have folks working in an office who are willing and able to run out into a field in the middle of nowhere and setup comms.
Ahh, you're thinking of the 4066 and IIRC 0366 MOSes. 4066 is network tech, and the 0366 is what we called the "Battery Opperated Grunt". They were deployed with the grunts to do field wire works, field radio maintenance, etc. If you're in a pitched battle, and the radio is crapping out on you, these would be the guys you hope to have in your fire team.
The 4066 MOS I believe was stripped down to bare minimums and changed into the 25xx or 26xx MOS, that was right when I was getting out though, so I can't say for sure. But I believe they were replacing all billets except for a handful of key and politicol positions. The 0366 MOS I believe is still intact, at least it was when I got out. Seems most civilians don't like taking jobs where they get shot at. Go figure.
-Rick
Re:How dare they? (Score:3, Interesting)
Since ADA was the language created for military code, mil-spec code looks a lot like an ADA program. Design by contract, for one thing.
Re:How dare they? (Score:5, Interesting)
On one Air Force base that I was stationed, it was very common for a company (usually Lockheed Martin) to "convince" the military that a certain position would be better served by a civilian contractor. It was just mere coincidence that the military person currently occupying that job just happened to be within early retirement age and that, even more coincidentally, he would be the one hired by the contractor to fill the civilian position after the military position was closed.
Eventually, entire portions of the base were run by civilians (civil engineering, the supply chain, avionics shops, test equipment maintenance, and vehicle management and maintenance are only a few that I recall off the top of my head) and the only military members that were left were those that legally couldn't be replaced by a contractor because they would be needed if the unit were to deploy anywhere.
I don't think most Slashdotters realize how big/powerful/corrupt the entire defense contracting industry really is.
Re:How dare they? (Score:3, Interesting)
Since ADA was the language created for military code, mil-spec code looks a lot like an ADA program. Design by contract, for one thing.
GDSS-2 [af.mil] is written in VB6.