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.
[1] 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.
Subject matter experts contribute to diverse topics, creating living collections of articles on milWiki to enhance organizational readiness in one centralized platform.
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.
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.
[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.
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.
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.
[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.
[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.