On openNASA

A few weeks ago I had an opportunity to have lunch with folks from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) in Houston. IABC is a professional organization of business communication professionals that meet regularly to discuss … well, communication! IABC was interested in how we were using openNASA as a catalyst in helping NASA think seriously about how to use information technology and social media to engage, inspire, and educate the public about space exploration. This is the presentation I put together as the backdrop for the talk, which is based largely on the vision we put together for this site. I apologize that I didn’t get it up sooner but I’d still love your thoughts and feedback.  Two notes about the presentation.  #1 – the content on slide #22 comes from Beth Beck’s great blogpost entitled “Want Change? Bring your Ax!” Beth is a very gifted writer and leader at NASA and I encourage you to check out her blog for more great insights.  #2 – Peter’s Laws on slide #23 were developed by Peter Diamandis.  The longer I work in the space industry, the more true they become.

I also really encourage you to check out IABC – they host regular meetings with great speakers and interesting topics. The Houston section also have a blog where they share communication tips and random thoughts. I’ve included @TexasTree’s impression about the openNASA presentation below.

Note: we are always looking for employees across the agency, as well as the occasional guest, to participate on openNASA as authors. Learn more about becoming an author.

Enter NASA’s New Space by Theresa Parker (@texastree)

Open, transparent and direct communication–the final frontier. It’s what we all strive for but like a manned trip to Mars seems far from reality. Leave it to the exploration experts at NASA to set out on a journey to find this type of communication. And I believe they have. Yes, it’s a government agency, but somehow a group of young, unjaded employees at NASA dared to create openNASA.com. ESIG members had a chance to hear about the project from the head renegade, Nick Skytland, Project Manager of the EVA Physiology Systems and Performance Project.

It was great to see his enthusiasm for his employer. He thinks the glory days of NASA aren’t over. This is NASA: The Next Generation. And he’s using a blog site to reach out to the public and tell the story through the voices of NASA employees. Wow! An engineer who has helped design space suits along with a whole list of other unworldly accomplishments he mentioned gets the importance of communication. Not just top down communication. Open, transparent and direct with an invitation to start a dialogue. While no wine was served that day at the luncheon, I think we all felt a little lightheaded at the prospect.

We also questioned, so where does Public Affairs stand on openNASA.com? Well, not exactly enthusiastic support, but not death to the rebels either. In fact, the site welcomes their contributions as authors, but out of the 37 authors listed I only saw one communicator, the head of media relations for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But if they aren’t contributing I can guarantee they are monitoring–as they should. And I’m being open and direct when I say if this was a slam NASA site, there would be ways of dealing with the creators. I’m sure it’s in their policy manual somewhere.

Bottom line, openNASA.com is a great example of using social media to engage employees and get the public excited about what the agency does and plans to do–that is if they get funded. Would your company or client endorse such a site? Could a government agency be ahead of the curve on best practices in using social media to build an employee community that’s not afraid to communicate with the public what they actually LIKE about their jobs? And maybe get the public to change its perception of NASA as a has-been agency?

As an American and Houstonian, I left the luncheon actually feeling excited about NASA: The Next Generation. As a communicator, I felt energized and maybe a little indignant that a communicator should have been the brains behind openNASA.com. But I quickly got over that. Thanks, Nick. If the space engineering thing doesn’t work out for you, the communications world is at your command.