I have a very practical problem, and I’d like to get some opinions on it from this crowd. My organization (Flight Dynamics Analysis Branch) at NASA does trajectory design and navigation work and in past years we’ve published end of year reports. Usually, this report is sent out via email (or snail mail) to a particular distribution of individuals who are already connected (in some way) to our branch. After a meeting today, we starting thinking about how we can get this information out to a wider audience. Ultimately, we’d want anyone who thinks “how can I find out what NASA is doing in the area of mission analysis?” to be able to find our end of year report and see what we’re doing.
So we were wondering if there’s an appropriate social networking-type tool (or something else?) that fits this kind of purpose that we can use to get the word out about the work that we do. Any ideas? How do we publish our work in such a way that anyone can find us and learn about what we do?
August 14th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Consider submitting a copy to the library at Goddard and/or the Center for AeroSpace Information (http://www.sti.nasa.gov). Once its at either of those places, it will be preserved, & if it’s sent to CASI, it will be accessible to researchers all over NASA; if its placed on their publicly accessible side (the NASA Technical Reports Server), it will be accessible to anyone with an Internet connection, especially since Google indexes NTRS entries.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:38 am
May want to try Google Docs. You can upload Word format as well as PDF, and Google indexes it. Google will also index anything that’s accessible on a webserver (assuming it has permissions).
Also check out Scribd.com
August 15th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
I would recommend using PBwiki. It’s a really great and easy-to-use tool to keep information organized and published. Examples of how others are using PBwiki:
http://twitter.pbwiki.com
http://tantek.pbwiki.com
http://pownce.pbwiki.com
If you have any questions about it, feel free to shoot me an email (I’m new at NASA CoLab).
August 18th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
A lot of these are good sites. I use Google Docs for a lot of my own writing, for instance. I will say, though, that using the NASA STI sitess will mean that thy will be abstracted & indexed by people who know our business. Additionally, if any of this is restricted by ITAR or some other regulations, our sites can keep them under control but still make them accessible to the people who can use them.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
A new social networking research tool that is fully crawled by search engines is iLeonardo.com (the best social online research tool according to Mashable).
It would be a great place to post bookmark/links to your reports along with annotated comments …all of which can be found by the general public. This is a great way for NASA experts to make their (non-ITAR) research available to the public.
The CEO of iLeonardo.com is happy to work with any NASA folks to help them get up to speed on using this tool and the Best Practices etc. They are based here in Mountain View, CA
September 13th, 2008 at 2:31 am
Peter:
What process do you, as a NASA employee, use to contact, evaluate, select and then recommend these private sector services? I would like to see a copy of the process so that I can apply for evaluation as well as tell others how to obtain such a NASA recommendation.
October 6th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I need to second Craig’s comments - if this is considered NASA Scientific and Technical Information, it needs to be reviewed for both intellectual property and export control compliance before release. Another purpose of the STI process is to ensure that NASA maintains a database/index of its work - once something goes into the STI database it is available for generations of scientists and engineers.
Repeating my caveat from another comment - the review requirements apply when you are speaking on behalf of the agency or want to circulate non-public NASA information. These review requirements apply to all agencies and come either from Congress or Executive Order.
Also, Peter, Keith’s comment aside, you should avoid endorsing private companies when discussing NASA business. Federal ethics rules preclude government employees from endorsing private companies and you could face personal liability.
Best, Courtney (Twitter: netlawyer)
October 27th, 2008 at 2:11 am
I’d suggest an old way: conversation.