{
    "version" : "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
    "content" : "news",
    "type" : "single",
    "title" : "NORAD Tracks Santa App |Digital.gov",
    "description": "NORAD Tracks Santa App",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2012/12/18/norad-tracks-santa-app/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"NORAD Tracks Santa App","summary" : "Mobile Gov Experiences are agency stories about creating anytime, anywhere, any device government services and info. This entry is a story shared by NORAD. The NORAD Tracks Santa apps provide a countdown to Santa’s Christmas Eve flight, interactive games and live tracking of Santa’s progress on December 24th. Why","date" : "2012-12-18T02:31:58-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","topics" : {
        
            "mobile" : "Mobile"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2012-12-18-norad-tracks-santa-app.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2012/12/2012-12-18-norad-tracks-santa-app.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2012/12/2012-12-18-norad-tracks-santa-app.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2012/12/2012-12-18-norad-tracks-santa-app.md","slug" : "norad-tracks-santa-app","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2012/12/18/norad-tracks-santa-app/","content" :"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2013/12/NORAD_Tracks_Santa_app-2.png\"\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2013/12/NORAD%5c_Tracks%5c_Santa_app-2.png\"\n    alt=\"Screen shot of NORAD Tracks Santa App\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\u003c/a\u003eMobile Gov Experiences are agency stories about creating anytime, anywhere, any device government services and info. This entry is a story shared by \u003cstrong\u003eNORAD\u003c/strong\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ca href=\"http://www.noradsanta.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003eNORAD Tracks Santa apps\u003c/a\u003e provide a countdown to Santa’s Christmas Eve flight, interactive games and live tracking of Santa’s progress on December 24th.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"toc0\"\u003e\u003ca name=\"x-Why We Did It\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eWhy We Did It\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe NORAD Tracks Santa program \u003ca href=\"http://www.norad.mil/AboutNORAD/NORADTracksSanta.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003ebegan in 1955 by accident\u003c/a\u003e , and the program has evolved into a large volunteer effort that includes military and civilian personnel, as well as national and local companies and organizations. In 2011, a local Colorado Springs development firm, Visionbox, approached NORAD and offered to create NORAD Tracks Santa mobile apps for Santa’s 2011 trip. This was a win-win situation and helped NORAD to evolve technologically and meet the needs of a new generation of NORAD Tracks Santa fans.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"toc1\"\u003e\u003ca name=\"x-What We Did\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eWhat We Did\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVisionbox created the first NORAD Tracks Santa apps for both the Android and iOS platforms in 2011. The original apps tracked Santa’s flight and included the games “Elf Toss” (iOS) and “Thin Ice” (Android.) For 2012, Visionbox added the “Thin Ice” game to iOS, added additional levels to the Android games, and in collaboration with iLink, they also created a new mobile app for the Windows Phone. iLink-systems helped NORAD evolve further through the creation of an app for the Windows 8 platform, which includes a number of features available on the \u003ca href=\"http://www.noradsanta.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.noradsanta.org\"\u003ewww.noradsanta.org\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/a\u003e site, games, and will allow fans to Track Santa with NORAD on Dec. 24th.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"toc2\"\u003e\u003ca name=\"x-How It Worked\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eHow It Worked\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe initial app releases in 2011 were a huge success, with over 1.4 million total combined downloads during the month of December 2011. To date this year (as of December 12, 2012), the NORAD Tracks Santa apps have achieved an additional combined total of 65,000 downloads, and have been updated 250,000 times across the Android and iOS platforms.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"toc3\"\u003e\u003ca name=\"x-What We Learned\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eWhat We Learned\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWorking across the four platforms we found that\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003euser feedback helps us improve our product\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ewe were able to reduce the size of the Android app for this year so that is takes less space\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ethere are variations in turn around time for updates which is critical for an app that is only available during the month of December\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"toc4\"\u003e\u003ca name=\"x-What's Next\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eWhat’s Next\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe’ll start planning for Santa’s 2013 trip on December 26th, and by July or August, our tech partners will really begin to ramp up for the next version of the apps.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"toc5\"\u003e\u003ca name=\"x-Contact\"\u003e\u003c/a\u003eContact\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNORAD Tracks Santa nnc (dot) pa (dot) nts (dot) omb (at) northcom (dot) mil\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}