Possible Open Innovation Projects at NASA
Following on my post from a couple of weeks ago, and in the spirit of eating your own dogfood, I would like to share some ideas about open innovation at NASA. Please note that the below list is not exhaustive, and that they are just ideas, although some are much further along than others. Additionally, these ideas are not all mine, although they are coming from my (spacecraft + software) bias. Not only do all the projects below promote transparency in practice (both internally and externally), but it also creates a culture of action and has many positive intended consequences. However, that is for a different conversation. Below is a list of ideas that have stuck over the last few years that are both small developments (free) and large initiatives ($900M+).
Internal
• Interactive x500
• Side Project App
• Open Innovation Fund
• Co-working / Coffee Shop Environment
• QuickSat
• Participatory Exploration as a Level 1 requirement
• Reward Cost Underuns
External
• Prizes
• NASA Open Source Agreement (NOSA) Continuous Release Authority
• NASA Application Programming Interface (API)
• NASA Advanced Research Projects Agency (NARPA )/ ARPA-N / NIAC++
• Red Planet Capital
• X Class Missions + Launch initiative
• COTS-Alphabet
Further below is a paragraph describing each idea. I welcome and encourage your comments!
Website Inputs (Follow-Up)
A few weeks ago, we were given the opportunity to contribute our thoughts towards the RFP for the new NASA website. A number of you contributed some really great thoughts that we then took back to the folks working on the project at HQs. Just this Friday, I received word back from Brian Dunbar, who was heading these efforts up on the HQs front, that the RFP is finally ready to go. He’s posted a reply to everyone in the initial post, which I’m copying and pasting below, so that everyone can see it. In addition, there’re some files he’s forwarded, which include:
- Brian’s reply to the suggestions that were gathered via OpenNASA: Click Here
- An overview by Senior Producer of NASA.gov, Jim Wilson: Click Here
- Brian’s presentation on the new website contract from Industry Day: Click Here
NASA Engineering & Safety Center - Resident Engineer Opportunity
The sigma 10 represent all NASA Centers working together!
Greetings everyone! I wanted to get the word out about a USA job posting that may be of interest to young NASA engineers looking for an opportunity to work on real NASA problems with senior technical disciplines experts from the NESC. Selected Resident Engineers remain at their home center but there will be frequent travel. This is a one year assignment that is unique within NASA.
Open Innovation in Government
President Obama on his second day in office issued a Presidential Memorandum on openness in government. This is a bold vision of creating a more effective, open government. The approach outlined in the memo is guided by the core values of transparency, participation and collaboration.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Global Development Commons convened a panel on Tuesday in Washington DC about Open Innovation in Government. Fortunately, the Global Development Commons streamed it live via www.ustream.com and you can see it archived here.
Colbert ISS Module: The (Open)NASA perspective
A non-NASA friend recently asked me and some other NASA folks what we thought of the “Colbert” ISS-module naming situation. For those who don’t know about this (really?), NASA held an online vote for naming the yet-to-be-launched Node 3 of the International Space Station (ISS). It gave four specified options (Legacy, Venture, Serenity, and Earthrise) and allowed for write-in votes. Colbert beat out Serenity by thousands of votes. Further rumors of naming the ISS toilet after him fueled the fire, with NASA responding in a nicely done cheeky way.
Today, it was announced that NASA will name the new ISS module on The Colbert Report on Tuesday, April 14th. This is what prompted this post: I’m interested in hearing some folks’ thoughts about this BEFORE it is announced. Opinions abound on the internet, but many people, like my non-NASA friend, are curious what people at NASA think about all of this.
Innovation doesn’t always mean “hi-tech”
CNN: Inventor turns cardboard boxes into eco-friendly oven
Inventor Jon Bohmer won the FT Climate Change Challenge with a solar oven made from cardboard, foil, and an acrylic cover. It only costs $5 and can boil water without flame or electricity. Read more
reinventing NASA
I was completely inspired this past weekend. I take personal development classes from a company called Landmark Education (www.landmarkeducation.com), and while I have gotten some really amazing stuff for my life out of those classes, what impressed me this weekend was the company’s approach to reinventing itself. I went to an event where we had a chance to see the process, and I thought it was awesome. There’s nothing wrong with the company - they’re doing well, and even had a vision for 2020 that they’ve been working towards. Yet, they were willing to take a real look at the products they were offering and whether or not there was something else that would really blow the roof off of what is possible for the company!
The company has spent several years now reinventing itself. They’ve gone through a process in which they’ve gone all the way back to nothing - where no one’s assumptions about what the company should or should not do influences the outcome. Then from nothing, they looked at the business they really wanted to be in, and how their current assets contribute to that future. They declared the 2020 vision complete and are moving forward with the results from this reinvention.
Video : Part 2 - Pathways
This is the part 2 of the Barriers to Innovation Video, Pathways. The video was originally posted on Wayne Hale’s Blog. I didn’t work on this project but I am very proud of the work the team did to put this together. I have to admit that I am a bit jealous.
openNASA redesign
We’ve been looking forward to rolling out a redesign of the openNASA website for quite some time. Today we’re proud to share our new look with you. We’ve added quite a bit of functionality like individual author profile pages, avatar integration, a cleaner user interface and a fancy space “lifestream” that imports space news and media from all over the web. We have a number of other upgrades we’ll be adding to the site over the next few weeks as well. We’d love to hear from you about what you think of the redesign. If you have any suggestions for improvements or added functionality please do share by leaving a comment here or submitting an idea to our uservoice feedback forum.
Rebalancing NASA’s Workforce
NASA has taken action to rebalance the aging workforce and adopted a policy and goal that 50% of all new civil servant hires will be fresh-out hires. About a year ago, representatives from the next generation community attended the NASA Strategic Management Council (SMC) at Stennis Space Center to stimulate a discussion on strategic workforce issues. The discussion focused on long-term effects of current hiring practices and the upcoming gap in US human space flight on the NASA mission and specific actions that the SMC and next generation community could each take. Over the past year, numerous discussions and associated activities have taken place throughout the agency, many of which we have discussed here on openNASA. All of this hard work, by so many throughout NASA, culminated two weeks ago on March 19th at the most recent SMC. I’m really excited to share the following email I received with the openNASA community which documents the results of the March SMC meeting. Thank you to everyone who has been involved and for everyone who shares this vision for NASA.
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