Government 2.0, Web 2.0, and NASA Outreach


This posting was born out of a suggestion by Dar to get smart on Web 2.0. Your research mileage may vary, but here's what I came up with.


Government 2.0

• I started with Wikipedia, which is far from an authoritative source, but great for a starting point. So what I found on government 2.0, e-government, and web 2.0.
• Lewis Shepherd's blog on NASA's "Be a Martian" site is worth another read.
• Obama's Deputy Chief Technology Officer wants millions of lobbyists!
• There's a Gov 2.0 Expo next May.
• Jeff Foust points out a number of new uses for Twitter re: NASA, including launch "Tweetups," a new hash tag to "Save NASA," and a web site by that same name.
• Here's something new out of the Obama administration today: a $260 million "Educate to Innovate" initiative. I'll be interested to see how far it gets. There is a recession on, after all.

Web 2.0

First, the Wikipedia article to get myself oriented...


Tim O'Reilly, one of the folks Dar recommended reading, has a long article on "What is Web 2.0?" that is well worth reading. I had a bunch of notes I was going to post from the article, but the copy-and-paste function does not translate from Word to Blogger. Arrrgh. The short version of Web 2.0 applications seems to be that future web designers for business or the government need to focus on making content easily available across multiple platforms (PC, Mac, PDAs, iPhones, etc.) and easily manipulable by potential users.

How much a technology-based organization like NASA is willing to do that is obviously a subject for debate. There are, after all, legitimate arms control and proprietary issues to consider before sharing technology products with the public. There are some obvious things that can and are being shared in new and innovative ways, like scientific data coming out of Hubble and the Mars rovers. There are no doubt obsolete technologies that could be opened to the public if there was sufficient interest.

The advantage to the government sharing information in this fashion--if it in fact comes to pass--is that it is a return to the old NACA model of government-private sector interactions, where information paid for by the taxpayers is made available to all, and what is done with the information to make a profit is the province of the private sector. Stranger things have happened.

As always, the trick is translating

Transforming NASA, Continued

In response to my own question...

Assuming the agency makes this transformation, what should NASA do? This is a question for the agency and its employees, but also the taxpayers and our elected leadership.

First, we must accept the fact that NASA's mission derives from the mission and policies of the United States Government, however constituted. For the sake of discussion, I will borrow a premise from Philip Bobbitt's The Shield of Achilles:

The State will maximize the opportunity of its citizens.

This definition uniquely directs and constrains the direction of government agencies like NASA. From here, I would propose the following mission objectives for the agency:

• Exploration: Send human and robotic explorers to celestial bodies never previously visited.
• Science and Technology Incubation: Provide facilities and test beds for basic science and technology research, with the results being available to all.
• Technology Transfer: Identify direct-application and "spinoff" technologies derived from space hardware to solve problems and improve life on Earth.

This list, however brief, is still general enough to allow for the Constellation Program, building the first Moon base, and developing in-space technologies. If the list appears a little too brief for some, once the Shuttle retires, these will be NASA's primary missions anyway. Still, I've striven to give the list more of a NACA feel to it, which would follow neatly from the notion that government should exist to maximize opportunities for its citizens, not do everything for them. Basic facts about the nature of the universe should be available to all; what people make of those facts is the business of individuals and corporations, with the government protecting innovations and inventions through patents and copyrights.

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Feel free to throw out your own premises. The top-level exercise of describing "what sort of space agency we want" also helps constrain and describe what sorts of transformation need to occur with the agency. Let the contemplation continue.