I'm happy to report that after a lot of work (and a significant amount still to come), we've launched an early access version of the Forge.mil and software.forge.mil collaboration capability for internal Department of Defense testers only.

The launch is officially categorized as LOA (limited operational availability), and we have begun to onboard a limited number of hand-picked projects. The purpose of this LOA period is to work through the inevitable bumps in the road that come with not only the operational details of a new system, but also getting projects and users used to the notion of a more open development methodology. From listening to today's decision point meeting about the launch, it is clear we'll have to work on getting some folks up to speed on this way of project development, but the good news is they seem excited and energized by what this change can bring to software development in the DoD.

Operationally, I'm also excited by a lot of the good work done by the team to PKI-enable not only our web tools, but also several subversion clients. There is more work to do with these clients, and we have to smooth out the content and on-boarding pieces, but all in all, it was a good day.

Now we are going to regroup a bit and prepare for the next series of Agile sprints to the official launch of the service in April. I'll have more details on that as we get closer - for now, it's time to celebrate a job well done by all of the involved parties - DISA, SPAWAR, and the CollabNet crew!