“Participatory Exploration” @SEDS SpaceVision
These are the slides from my talk at SEDS SpaceVision this weekend in College Station. I don’t have talking points yet, but when/if I do, I’ll post them here as well – I just wanted to get the slides up as soon as possible. SEDS SpaceVision is the annual event for chapters of SEDS (Students for Exploration and Development of Space) in the US to come together to meet, talk, listen to speakers from the space industry, and network. I’ve never had the chance to attend spacevision before, but since it was essentially in our back yard here in Texas, it was the perfect opportunity. Thanks to Texas A&M for hosting! This was about “participatory exploration” in context of both working at NASA and working with NASA. The audience was the interested college students attending the conference (I have another version of the “participatory exploration” I give to NASA program/project managers about how we actually go about opening our programs/projects and making them “participatory”). The goal of my talk was to let the students know a) how exciting working for NASA can be, b) how exciting the Constellation Program is, and c) that even if they didn’t literally work for NASA or for one of its subcontractors, there are still many ways to participate. Each day, we are creating more and more avenues for people to participate in the NASA mission. I’d love for readers of opennasa.com to share any other “participatory” efforts you know about. I’m also interested in hearing about what you do for NASA, if you work in the industry. If you have an awesome job, take a moment to tell us what you do! It was really good to see a number of good friends at the event, including Will Pomerantz (twitter.com/pomerantz) of the X PRIZE and Ken Davidian (twitter.com/kdavidian) of the FAA. Other notable speakers included Peter Diamandis, Bob Richards, and Loretta Hidalgo! Check out Will’s blog post(s) about the conference at The Launch Pad and check out Ken’s commercial space wiki. Note: This presentation was the ‘Feature Slideshow of the Day’ on slideshare.net on Sunday Nov 16: http://www.slideshare.net/ssod. Special thanks to Karen Lau (http://twitter.com/k_lau) for the awesome CoLab logo.
11 Responses to ““Participatory Exploration” @SEDS SpaceVision”
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Brian Shiro on November 16th, 2008
Thanks for sharing the presentation, Nick. It was visually stunning and very inspirational.
I have an interesting job with NOAA helping to protect lives and property from tsunami hazards. However, my dream has always been to work for NASA. The opportunities for engineers to work at NASA are plentiful, but for geoscientists they are slim to none. What would you recommend to someone in my position trying to leverage a career shift to exploration development at NASA?
Thanks,
Brian
ISU SSP05
Keith Cowing on November 17th, 2008
Earlier this year a number of younger NASA employees briefed ( http://www.nasawatch.com/archi.....pitch.html ) NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale on Web 2.0 and Gen Y issues at an SMC meeting. They were tasked to come back with some ideas/projects. It has been more than 6 months. Were those ideas/projects ever presented to NASA HQ? Is this a preview?
Keith Cowing on November 18th, 2008
I have featured this presentation on NASA Watch. Right now y’all are getting beat up over this (again) and I see little attempt (other than one notable exception) on the part of this community to defend what was presented and how it was presented. If you folks cannot or will not defend yourselves against the criticism (fair and unfair) thrown at you, how do you expect to transform NASA?
Ash on November 19th, 2008
Great presentation. My main question is how exactly do you get into NASA without the Co-op program and with today’s economy. Many schools don’t have co-op programs that link them with NASA. The economy is crashing leaving possibly cuts in the tech sector looming, and NASA looks like it may be headed for budge cuts soon. Most people I’ve talked to see getting into NASA as a black box, and I have to agree.
Justin Kugler on November 19th, 2008
Ash, that’s actually a very big issue and it is being discussed. In my own experience, I did three summer internships at JSC as an undergraduate. I had a spot as a full co-op waiting for me, but my undergraduate adviser decided I was being greedy and she wouldn’t sign off to let me in the program.
Despite three tours at JSC, nearly three years of civil service as an intel officer, and repeated applications at USAJobs, I have only ever gotten interviews and job offers from contractors. If you aren’t an official NASA co-op, you pretty much have to know a civil servant who is willing to help you get in.
Brian Shiro on November 19th, 2008
I have a somewhat similar story to Justin. As an undergraduate, I was an intern at JSC, and as a graduate student, I interned briefly at both GSFC and JPL. However, none of that seems to matter when trying to get NASA civil servant jobs. I agree with Ash and Justin, that NASA needs recruitment options in addition to the coop program.
Justin Kugler on November 19th, 2008
I offered my own thoughts on that today at NASA Watch, Keith. Put bluntly, most of the people I know just don’t see the value in stepping into what they perceive to be an unnecessary gauntlet.
Reading the SciGuy blog at the Houston Chronicle’s website is what ostensibly started my own blogging, but I don’t even pay as much attention there as I used to because it’s seemingly overrun with people who just want to argue that global warming is a hoax and insult anyone who disagrees.
While you might bring up valid points yourself as the editor, my perception is that much of your audience is so hostile that I think it turns off a lot of the OpenNASA crowd.
Keith Cowing on November 19th, 2008
I hate to break it to you Justin but if this is the attitude you are going to take then you will have zero effect on transforming the agency. People will fight you – and they will win. Not only do you need to fight back, you need to do so while exhibiting some of the collaborative behavior that your Gen Y compatriots so often confess to believing in. Simply giving up on a dialog and taking your ball and going home because someone bullies you results in you not having a game to play in – and leaves the bullies to have the run of the playground. Make the bullies your allies – win them over with logic and with deeds.
Longer post on NASA Watch. Thanks for stopping by!
Skytland on November 19th, 2008
Re: NASA Careers –
Brian, Ash, Justin, I wanted to respond to your discussion about NASA careers, but it was longer than I expected, so I just made it a new post: http://www.opennasa.com/2008/1.....a-careers/. Hope this helps!
Justin Kugler on November 19th, 2008
Keith, as I pointed out with the JSC engagement teams, I’d say that’s already happening. At the very least, it is happening in Houston. I can’t speak for the other centers because I’ve not really been involved in those wider discussions.