Sierra7 and Mobomo, congratulate the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Store for being selected as a winner of the 2023 Web Excellence Awards. This award recognizes outstanding work being conducted all over the world in fields such as web design, website development, digital marketing, and user experience design.
The USGS Store is the official e-commerce platform that enables the sale of maps, recreational passes, educational products, and thousands of other items. Sierra7 and Mobomo have been development partners with the USGS Store for over 5 years. The team assisted with the digital modernization efforts to provide a robust, secure site that delivers engaging and interactive features to site users, including a fully functional tool capable of using a map feature to zoom into a specific GIS location and translating that selection into printable/salable maps.
Our team is proud to serve USGS and honored to have contributed to the recognition they have received. Congratulations to the USGS Store team!
Sierra7, Inc. is a leading consultant to healthcare and federal agencies nationwide providing IT solutions, consulting services, and citizen engagement support. As a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and CMMI-SVC Level 3-appraised member of the government technology and services industry, Sierra7 holds critical federal government prime contracts including T4NG, VHA-IHT, GSA VETS 2, NIH CIO-SP3, NASA SEWP V, VA TeleCare Companion, and several GSA schedules. In 2022, Sierra7 achieved AWS Select Partner status in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN), ranked No. 457 on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America, recognized as a Vet100 honoree, and as a Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Midsize Patriot Employer of the Year. To learn more, visit: https://sierra7.com.
About Mobomo
Mobomo is an AWS and Microsoft Certified Partner with extensive past performance in creating and managing large-scale cloud migrations and digital solutions. A member of the Digital Services Coalition (DSC) and co-chair of the Educational Committee, Mobomo is dedicated to supporting the presidential executive order and leading in the transformation of customer experience for Federal clients. Mobomo specializes in Human Centered Design (HCD), building elegant solutions to solve complex problems. As a premier provider of mobile, web, and cloud applications to large enterprises, federal agencies, napkin-stage startups, and nonprofits, Mobomo combines leading-edge technology with human-centered design and strategy to craft next-generation digital experiences. Mobomo provides large-scale web and CMSs, applications, user-centric design, cloud, and emerging technology services.
The Drupal community has announced the official end of life date for Drupal 7, which is January 5, 2025. This comes after an extension was granted until at least November 1, 2023. With this final extension, the level of support provided by the Drupal Security Team will be adjusted. Some key take aways from Drupal’s announcement that may/will affect you include:
.categories ul {
list-style: disc;
margin-left: 18px;
padding-left: 0px
}
.categories ul li {
margin-bottom: 10px;
}
Starting from August 1, 2023, moderately critical and less critical issues affecting Drupal 7 may be publicly posted in the issue queue for resolution, as long as they are not mass-exploitable. This change does not affect Drupal 9 and above.
Unsupported Drupal 7 module branches will no longer be eligible for new maintainership after August 1, 2023. Community support for contributed modules will continue, but it is encouraged to proactively adopt these modules if they are relied upon.
Support for PHP versions lower than 5.6 will no longer be provided for Drupal 7, effective August 1, 2023. Security fixes for Windows-only issues will also cease for Drupal 7 sites running on Windows.
Drupal.org will stop creating Drupal 7 distribution packages with Drush make files from August 1, 2023. Local usage of drush make for distribution building is recommended instead.
The end of life for Drupal 7 means that the Drupal Security Team will no longer offer support or security advisories for Drupal 7 core and contributed modules. Public disclosure of security issues may occur, and Drupal.org will no longer support Drupal 7-related tasks.
Drupal 7-compatible releases will be flagged as unsupported, certain Drush functionality will cease, file archive packaging for Drupal 7 will be shut off, and external vulnerability scans will identify Drupal 7 as insecure.
It is recommended to migrate Drupal 7 sites to Drupal 10 before the end-of-life date.
The Drupal Association has introduced the Drupal 7 Certified Migration Partners program to assist Drupal 7 site owners in their migration process. Certified Migration Partners will be promoted on Drupal.org, and a migration resource library will be available for end users seeking assistance.
For more information about the Drupal 7 end of life and the Certified Migration Partners, visit the Drupal 7 End of Life | Drupal.org. For more information on Mobomo and our capability to lead you through the migration process, please our Blueprint Migration page on the Mobomo website.
Mobomo would like to congratulate our partner, Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN), for their recent Web Excellence Award for Alhurra.com. The Alhurra website offers the latest news with speed and accuracy right from the heart of events. It offers a wide variety of breaking news and feature stories across politics, sport, business, science, health and technology. The daily content offering includes extensive videos covering various topics and news events from around the world.
Mobomo has been a proud development partner with MBN for over 4 years, providing the Voltron Drupal CMS platform that powers Alhurra.com’s daily content as well as the development of their streaming radio mobile apps. It is with great pleasure that we commend our partner and Mobomo is honored to have played a part in this outstanding achievement.
ChatGPT is garnering a lot of attention as of late. The chatbot that OpenAI released in November 2022 has smashed the early adoption rates of other products, “accomplishing in two months what it took TikTok about nine months and Instagram two and a half years,” according to a cnet.com article. While this leap within AI is impressive, ChatGPT is merely the advancement that will eventually be viewed in much the same way as the cordless phone was (for those of us old enough to remember how revolutionary the cordless phone was).
To be fair, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already made a significant impact on society and its influence is only expected to grow in the future. From improving healthcare and transportation to revolutionizing the way we work and communicate; AI has changed many aspects of our lives.
AI is Changing the Way We Work and Live
One of the most significant influences of AI is how it has changed the way we work. AI-powered tools have enabled businesses to automate routine tasks and analyze vast amounts of data, making work more efficient and freeing up time for more creative and strategic tasks. AI has also improved many aspects of our daily lives, such as providing more personalized and efficient customer service, improving navigation and traffic flow, and enhancing the accuracy of weather forecasts. While AI has made many tasks easier and more efficient, it has also raised concerns about its impact on employment. Some worry that AI will automate many jobs, leading to widespread job loss and economic disruption.
If history teaches us anything, it is that, rather than being bad or good, these tools will be bad and good. Some jobs will go away, others will rise in their stead. Just as no one could imagine carrying a phone around with them everywhere they went 20 years ago; today, we think little of how dependent we have become on our phones today – not just for phone calls, but emails, internet searches, entertainment, even medical device monitoring and adjustments (think hearing aids and pacemakers). The reality of the integration of these tools into our everyday lives is that we really aren’t that far away from society as it is depicted at the beginning of the movie iRobot.
ChatGPT today – iRobot tomorrow
So, where do we go from ChatGPT? What is the next step in the AI awakening? The answer to this is somewhat limitless (social implications from AI-dating to replicating a lost loved one and industry evolutions such as the extinction of drivers’ licenses/car ownership as autonomous vehicles become a mainstay are just a few examples). One outcome of AI’s impact on our future lives that is interesting to postulate is the combination of AI, reinforcement learning, and robotics.
Reinforcement learning is a type of machine learning that focuses on using algorithms to enable machines to make decisions based on feedback from their environment. The goal of reinforcement learning is to teach an agent to take actions that maximize a reward signal. In the context of robotics, the agent is a robot and the actions it takes are movements or actions it performs in its environment.
In reinforcement learning, the agent interacts with its environment by taking actions and observing the consequences of those actions. Based on these experiences, the agent adjusts its behavior to improve its decision-making over time. The agent is incentivized to take actions that lead to a higher reward signal, such as successfully completing a task or avoiding obstacles.
Reinforcement learning can be integrated with AI to build robots that are capable of making decisions and adapting their behavior in real-world environments. By combining AI with reinforcement learning, robots can learn from their experiences and improve their decision-making over time. This can lead to robots that are more autonomous and capable of completing complex tasks without human intervention.
For example, a robot equipped with AI and reinforcement learning algorithms could be trained to navigate a warehouse and locate specific items. The robot would start by exploring the environment and learning the layout of the warehouse. As it encounters different obstacles and finds the items it is searching for, it would update its decision-making based on the feedback it receives from its environment. Over time, the robot would become more efficient at navigating the warehouse and locating items.
However, the integration of AI with reinforcement learning and robotics also raises ethical and safety concerns. There is a need to ensure that the algorithms used in reinforcement learning do not harm people or cause unintended consequences. Additionally, as robots become more autonomous, there is a risk that they may make decisions that are not aligned with human values and interests. As AI continues to evolve, it will be important to continue monitoring its impact on society and to ensure that its development benefits all people.
Chatbots enabled with AI, like ChatGPT, have placed our society on the doorstep of a new and fascinating leap forward. For the Mobomo team, we consistently position ourselves on the cutting edge of technology through our contracted work and Mobomo Labs. While it may seem like this tech is years away from implementation, AI, reinforcement learning, and robotics are all advanced enough right now to build viable prototypes. You may find yourself taking that leap sooner than you realize; after all, ChatGPT wrote 65% of the article you just read and midjourney generated the graphics/visual imagery within this article.
At the beginning of November, The Department of the Interior announced a lifetime pass providing free entrance to National Parks, Wildlife Refuges and Other Public Lands for veterans and gold star family members. The VA followed this announcement with an email to every Veteran and all eligible family members on November 17, 2022.
Mobomo developed and has managed the USGS Store site for several years now so when USGS stakeholders realized that approximately 20 million people had been notified of this fantastic opportunity, they made the Mobomo team aware that the site might experience an increase in traffic; which was exactly what happened (see chart below) – with 2.5 million requests funneled through the site across a 6-hour period and elevated activity throughout the course of the week.
USGS Store historically has maintained a steady flow of traffic through the site without large shifts in traffic. The spike in traffic the site experienced proved to be a significant testament to how well the Mobomo team engineered the site, which uses AWS elastic Kubernetes service (EKS) and leverages two scaling groups: one for running the applications (Drupal, nginx cache, redis), and one for running Elasticsearch clusters. More importantly, however, millions of our service members and their families were able to successfully obtain their lifetime National Parks passes – providing them the opportunity to build wonderful memories and enjoy our country’s treasured lands.
For more information on how we create elegant solutions to complex problems, please visit the Mobomo website or reach out to us directly for more information.
This advertisement is not intended to state or imply that the products or services provided are approved or endorsed by the Government or are considered by the Government to be superior to other products or services.
Mobomo team members are truly passionate about discovering ways in which technology can solve difficult everyday challenges. For over 13 years we have supported Departments and Agencies in the Federal Civilian marketplace, creating elegant solutions to solve complex problems. Some challenges are more important than others; our work with the Veterans Administration (VA) and the United Service Organizations (USO) has focused our team to find solutions to real-world issues that affect the men and women who have served in the armed forces.
According to a June 2022 article published by the USO, the suicide rates for US military personnel are historically double that of the civilian population. Since record-keeping began following the events of 9/11, suicide rates among active-duty military members are at an all-time high. One of the biggest contributors to mental health is a sense of community and alleviation from feelings of isolation. Transitioning to civilian life is often difficult for many service members. The loss of mission and feeling a part of something bigger and more important than themselves, even years later they express a feeling of disconnection from their military family.
We take pride in all our work, especially in support of the VA and in working together with the Veterans who work alongside us here at Mobomo. Our team is acutely aware of the need for active outreach opportunities to promote mental health and reduce stressors, especially when it comes to our Veteran population. Utilizing resources allocated through MobomoLabs, our Engineering team and technical SMEs began a two-year discovery journey that would culminate in the rise of Sentinel, a human-centered mobile platform built with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities.
The concept of Sentinel began with the vision of developing an ethical tool that would provide health equity for all, improve access to Veterans Crisis Line Services, allow for interoperability between smartphones, tablets, and web-based devices, aid in the reengagement of the individual, screen for early signs of distress, and be scalable across a broad veteran population. Current published metrics identify that 85% of the U.S. population uses smartphones, 75% own a desktop/laptop, and nearly 50% use tablets. Therefore, a digital platform was a logical connection point for the community of 1.2 million active duty and 19 million Veterans. Sentinel was designed as an all-inclusive ecosystem, delivered through a simple, intuitive user interface that is accessible across mobile, tablet, and web-based devices. The features within Sentinel were developed to target areas of interest specific to our military members and serve as a conduit for attaining and/or retaining the connection to those unique cultural unifiers that bond and bind service members to each other.
The thoughtful design began by creating an intuitive tool that would engage individuals, creating repeat users, and improving access to Veterans Crisis Services. The initial release has a landing page that provides access to critical support for service members (VHA, VA locations, the VA Crisis Line, Veteran Community Organizations, Veteran Support Groups, and the individual’s safety plan) prompting them to discover different ways to access support services available to them and their families. Utilizing the AI voice automated screening developed by our partner, Clearspeed, Sentinel could identify early warning signs through our scalable and interoperable risk prevention analytics. Sentinel has infinite scalability and can be expanded as usage and the user network grows, perhaps to encompass resources including but not limited to educational and career resources, geo-fencing to events in the direct vicinity, veteran-based business advertisements, and veteran networking, among other features.
During Sentinel’s development, we focused on the unique attributes of the military culture – honor, loyalty, and commitment. As an experienced VA contractor currently tasked with developing the Mental Health Check Up (MHC) application for the VA, Mobomo utilized our lessons learned, constructing the front-end of the Sentinel platform around activities that fulfill service member needs/desires (specifically a sense of community, purpose, and communication vehicles), providing direct access to support systems should the user require immediate intervention. With the push of a button, an individual could access the Veterans Crisis Hotline or Chat, a self-created safety plan, their support network, local resources available to them (geo-fencing), and the AI-based risk assessment check-in tool.
Sentinel’s Secret Sauce
The risk assessment component within Sentinel uses an AI-driven, voice-based technology from Clearspeed. Clearspeed voice analytics proactively identify potential suicide ideation and risk prior to escalations that could result in self-harm. Clearspeed voice analytics technology has been used successfully across a range of personnel screening applications: risk assessment, insider threat detection, protection of proprietary information, insurance fraud, force protection, resilience screening, and detection of malicious actors. Preemptive identification of suicide ideation requires the verbal answering of 3-4 simple, automated, and non-intrusive questions eliciting “Yes/No” responses. The proliferation of research regarding suicide across the Veteran population confirms that suicide is often precipitated by a culmination of disparate factors that add layers of stress on an individual, eventually becoming unbearable. According to the 2021 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, 60% of the Veterans who died by suicide in 2019 did not utilize resources available to them through VHA. Sentinel serves as a “sensor” by proactively identifying those service members developing suicidal thoughts. Sentinel has the capability to detect stressors in the user and direct health care providers to proactively reach out to the user, providing resources and/or engaging in interventions prior to behavioral escalations that could result in harm to themselves or others.
Bringing together Mobomo’s core competencies of User-centered design, rapid prototyping, and application development with a bleeding-edge technology company and innovator, Clearspeed, we built a mobile platform, to include cloud infrastructure, resources, dependencies, compliance checks, and network connections necessary to deliver a scalable, flexible, and reproducible experience. Our team automates every aspect of a product pipeline to ensure 100% reliability on every release. We built fault-tolerant, highly available solutions that heal themselves, which helps eliminate single points of failure. Additionally, we future-proofed our designs by architecting them around containers, micro-servers, and fully managed serverless computing and storage solutions.
While Sentinel is a mobile application geared to support our service members, the possibility of its application across other groups and for different purposes is limitless; and that is what MobomoLabs is truly about – discovering and designing elegant solutions to even the most seemingly insurmountable challenges. For more information about how Mobomo conceives, builds, and delivers mission-critical products that people love to use, please visit our site or reach out to us directly.
As a subcontractor to the Prime contract holder, Armedia LLC, Mobomo will support the Sustainment Operations for Applications BPA for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The USDA called on Armedia, who has a working and holistic understanding and knowledge of USDA application hosting environments. Mobomo is a primary subcontractor to Armedia and will help serve as the source of technical expertise regarding maintaining and improving the USDA application environment and working closely with information security. In addition to providing tactical production operations support and DBA services, the Armedia Team will provide strategic guidance and recommendations for strategic planning and improvements to the systems/applications supported by Armedia.
As part of an integrated team, Mobomo will provide support across all task areas. In support of Drupal task orders, Mobomo will act as the primary subcontractor.
One of Mobomo's core competencies is Drupal development. With a wide range of experience from developers and designers to project managers, our team works with customers to create innovative products that are cost-effective and sustainable.
Our depth of experience and technical skills allow us to be awarded projects similar to this one.
About Mobomo
Mobomo, LLC is a CMMI Dev Level 3 and ISO 9001:2015 premier provider of mobile, web, and cloud application development experienced in creating award-winning, agile, User-Centered Design (UCD) and Human-Centered Design (HCD) solutions, custom crafting next-generation digital experiences for federal agencies. A proud Drupal Association member, AWS Public Sector Partner, and Reseller, Microsoft Certified Partner, Acquia Partner, and member of the Digital Services Coalition, Mobomo takes great pride in the recognition given to our innovative solutions, gaining press and winning numerous awards, including the multiple Webby Awards for our mobile responsive design of NASA.gov, Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) InnovateIT Awards for USGS.gov and NASA.gov, the MUSE Creative Award, W3, Webby, and Vega Award for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries website, and the Vega Award for the PRAC pandemic oversight website.
Whether you are looking for a complete end-to-end solution, wanting to migrate existing website content into Drupal, or need additional staff with Drupal expertise to add to your team, Mobomo can deliver. Visit our website to learn more: https://www.mobomo.com/drupal/
In September 2022, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. announced its plans to award Team Mobomo the opportunity to build MBN’s Radio Sawa Mobile Application.
Radio Sawa provides news and information to audiences throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) through different media platforms, including mobile devices and the Internet. Radio Sawa maintains an active all-news website (www.radiosawa.com) which provides both up to the minute news and information as well as audio live streaming, making the network one of the most trusted sources of news and insights on social and political life in the Middle East and North Africa.
The project will consist of building a modern, user-friendly, and engaging mobile application for smartphone users living in the MENA region. It will be an audio-content-based app that allows users to seamlessly stream audio channels, listen to on-demand audio content/radio shows/podcasts, read about shows and episodes, and interact with the content and channel. The primary objective is to revamp the website and the mobile application of Radio Sawa which currently has three streams/channels, such that they meet the audio channel’s digital transformation needs. The app will be available on both iOS and Android app stores and be compatible with the devices used in the MENA region.
ABOUT MOBOMO
Mobomo is a CMMI Dev Level 3 premier mobile, web, and cloud application development company that has extensive experience in creating award-winning, Agile, user-centered design solutions and providing DevSecOps capabilities. As a proud Drupal Association member, Amazon Web Services (AWS) public sector partner and reseller, Microsoft certified partner, Acquia partner, and member of the Digital Services Coalition, Mobomo is well positioned to provide our clients with quality service, executing tasks on time and within budget, while minimizing risk.
ABOUT MBN:
The Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. (MBN) is the non-profit news organization that operates Alhurra Television and Radio Sawa under a grant from the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
To learn more about Team Mobomo, please feel free to visit our website.
In August 2022, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc. announced its plans to partner with Team Mobomo for Operations and Maintenance (O&M) support of their Content Management System (CMS), as well as managing the annual subscriptions to Acquia Cloud and Kaltura Media.
Mobomo, LLC put forward a solid approach and believed that our vision, expertise, and culture coupled with our all-star talent uniquely positioned us to provide MBN the strongest possible continuation of service.
MBN has access to an unparalleled level of experience, understanding, and capability through Mobomo's experienced staff and knowledge, ensuring risk-free continuity. MBN's CMS was designed, developed, and deployed by our team. Using lessons learned during implementation, we continue to adapt our processes, driving both innovation and quality. It is our pleasure to continue partnering with MBN to enhance this success, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and visitors to MBN properties.
ABOUT MOBOMO
Mobomo is a CMMI Dev Level 3 premier mobile, web, and cloud application development company that has extensive experience in creating award-winning, Agile, user-centered design solutions and providing DevSecOps capabilities. As a proud Drupal Association member, Amazon Web Services (AWS) public sector partner and reseller, Microsoft certified partner, Acquia partner, and member of the Digital Services Coalition, Mobomo is well positioned to provide our clients with quality service, executing tasks on time and within budget, while minimizing risk.
As a provider of Tier 2 and Tier 3 O&M for numerous federal and state customers including the International Trade Administration (ITA), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Mobomo is well equipped to deliver these types of services. In addition to providing 24/7/365 incident response and customer support, our team performs continuous monitoring, regular monthly updates, and patching to infrastructure and applications.
To learn more about Team Mobomo, please feel free to visit our website.
iOS 16 was released with a multitude of new features that change and upgrade the user’s experience while using Apple’s latest iPhone software. A few things to keep in mind for UX designers, as they create new user experiences, are the lock screen’s ability to highlight apps through widgets and live activities, and the continuously increasing capability to allow users to verify identification using Apple Wallet. By revamping the lock screen, users now will be able to access important information more quickly and easily, as they will only have to glance at their screen to find what they are looking for. The new Apple Wallet Identification feature continues the journey of replacing the physical wallet with just your phone. As designers, we need to keep in mind these features that change how a user interacts with their phone, consume products, and complete their day-to-day lives.
Here is Mobomo's explanation of these new features and how they might benefit the experience of a user.
New Lock Screen & Focus Mode
The lock screen was completely revamped by the Apple team with a big focus on personalization. You have access to adding personal colors to your lock screen and are also able to have multiple different lock screen layouts, made by you, and saved to switch between. That includes the photo used as the wallpaper, typefaces, colors, and more. Along with another new feature called Focus, users can switch between lock screens that are tailored to help them during work, their free time, or sleeping.
Widgets
More importantly, the lock screen also has two new features that provide users with a new and clean way to view information. Widgets are now available to be placed on your lock screen, as well as a new feature called Live Activities.
Widgets stay a consistent shape throughout the apple ecosystem, so this is helpful for continuity and provides a helpful user experience. Live Activities take something like basketball game updates, or uber status, and allow them to be displayed in a much cleaner perspective on the lock screen. The motivation behind this feature is to replace apps sending multiple notifications every few seconds or minutes and provide a dashboard for that information instead. We think this is a great upgrade, because notifications will be easier to organize, and users are able to quickly see statuses on their lock screen.
Apple Wallet
Verifying identity inside Apple Wallet is possible now with the ability to upload your driver’s license or state ID. This feature is slowly rolling out, with only Arizona and Maryland currently supporting the ID uploads. As of now, you can present your ID from your iPhone or Apple Watch at certain TSA checkpoints in select airports. Another useful feature for id verification is in-app verification. The example given was ordering alcohol on Uber Eats and using your Apple Wallet to verify your age and identity. There is no telling when this will be widely available, but for now, it provides seamless, contactless touch for TSA. While Apple Wallet ID verification is only supported in a very limited number of states and airports, this is one step forward for a contactless user experience, regarding safety and security as a priority.
The user experience designer also needs to know about some other aspects that have not seen major changes or enhancements. The Touch ID and Face ID have not changed significantly. Apple Login now allows users to share subscriptions with family members, but other features remain the same.
In conclusion, the lock screen overhaul provides a great opportunity for apps to show status updates through Live Activities or provide widgets to glance at or interact with. They follow a consistent pattern with the Apple Watch in style/functionality and are easily accessible. iOS 16 includes all of these features as defaulting to opt-out, which means that users are not prompted or forced to use any of the new features. This is great for individuals that do not want, or have the time, to learn and use these new features without affecting their old experiences in previous iOS versions.
