Now, a word about the sponsor. I am beginning a new gig at Langley as lead of the newly formed New Media Team. We are exploring the use of new media such as this, with all the implications.

Thanks OpenNASA, I owe my inspiration to you.

NASA 360 is really taking off now that it’s on nasa.gov. Within days, it broke into the top 10 most-downloaded videos. At one point this month (I haven’t checked this week) the program was the No. 1 downloaded video on nasa.gov. Along the way, the program has earned a slew of awards, including an Emmy nomination.

But the best feedback  is comments like this one from an iTunes viewer:

“I was looking for a good download for my science class and came across this program. How informative! Fast paced and interesting, it will keep my class motivated and glued to the screen … highly recommended.”

Why is NASA 360 successful online? I can’t really say for sure, though I like to think it’s because

Oh, and in case you’re wondering what NASA 360 is about: the program shows how NASA changes our lives in positive ways by examining how technology developed by and for the agency is used in everything from space exploration to everyday consumer products. Although the program has appeal to all ages, it is crafted to especially reach the Gen X and Y demographic.

So if you’re interested in the NASA connection to things like unearthing a mummified dinosaur, rediscovering parts of the Lewis and Clark Trail, the Mayan civilization, and auto racing, check out NASA 360 at:

• NASA web site – http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/nasa360/index.html
• NASA 360 Blog – http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/nasa360
• NASA TV – http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
• YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/nasaeclips
• MySpace – http://www.myspace.com/nasa360tv
• Facebook – http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=612750154&ref=profile
• iTunes – Access iTunes Store and search NASA 360

Hats off to those who make NASA 360 possible. The 360 team has succeeded in being new, fresh, original, creative, innovative, exciting, relevant, and high quality in everything it does. You also can’t underestimate the power of nasa.gov to reach people.

Special kudos to producers/shooters/interviewers/editors Mike Bibbo and Kevin Krigsvold, who are NIA employees at Langley, and show hosts Jennifer Pulley and Johnny Alonso. And to NASA’s Strategic Communications Office, the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, and the Exploration Technology Development Program for funding NASA 360 episodes, and the NIA management.

• This artist was born in Duluth, Minnesota
• This artist won a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation in April 2008 for “profound impact on popular music and American culture … “
• I left off the last line because it could be a giveaway

While we wait for your responses, I’ll muse about Gen Y, the generation after that (Gen Z?), and the generation before the Baby Boomers (what were they called, anyway?).Like many of you, I’ve been following the conversation – debate, argument, battle – about Gen Y for some time.I’ve read how Gen Y’rs are different, how they are the same. Heard the songs of themselves and the diatribes of detractors. I love this quote from NASA Watch for its daring vitriol: “I think they’re a bunch of narcissi(s)tic pansies.”At the other end of the spectrum, though not quite as arresting: “I’m completely impressed with the GenY folks that I know.”- – -My three-year-old son of late has been waking mornings, padding into the living room in his “jammies” and asking “Daddy, can you get me online?”I hook him up to the Little Einsteins site and observe while he clicks through interactive educational games, downloads PDF files, and makes printouts so he can color the characters with felt markers. A few decades ago kids his age were transistor natives. Or was it vacuum tube natives? Wonder what he’ll be hooking up to in 20 years. For those of you who don’t know what Little Einsteins is, ask a Gen Z. Or Google it. I’ll take my answer online.- – -Okay, time for the answer to our Quick Quiz:Bob Dylan. Lines from the song “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” copyright 1963. That last line I withheld goes like this:”And the times they are a-changin’.”Trick Quick Quiz question, right? Dylan was born in 1941, turned 67 in May. He is of that generation that has no reliable label (that I can find). He can’t be Gen Y, either.Or can he?In this brave new world that has so ingeniously harnessed the flow of electrically charged particles, where actions speak louder than words, and where we take everyone as an individual, and never prejudge, and keep open minds, and whereas teleporting a laser beam of light has been achieved experimentally, and all things seemingly are possible … can generational characteristics and their consequent labels be enabled to transom time and space?Dylan, a physicist at heart, obviously foresaw this potential when (1964) he wrote, “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”I’ll take my answer online.- – -By the way, I say, let ‘em live. They seem human enough.