Suggested Guidelines for Crisis Communication and Social Media

Social internet media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) need to be treated as an organic and integral part of an organization’s media strategy. The internet feeds on information, and the worst thing an organization can do in that environment—as with traditional media outlets—is to go silent during periods of crisis or uncertainty. The information needs to keep flowing, even if the information is “We’re still working on an answer.” Public affairs, marketing, and/or outreach personnel need to be kept in the loop as subject matter experts and advisors for handling public perception, regardless of the nature of the crisis or uncertainty surrounding it.


In addition to external communications, extra thought also needs to be given to internal communications—what you are saying to your employees. The best thing you can do is to instill a feeling that “We’re all in this together.” The best way to do that is to keep your employees as informed as you can about what is being done to address the crisis at hand and let them be your organization’s advocates out in the social media world. If you cannot divulge the specific decisions being discussed, then you need to at least explain what the process is—what some of the factors are that must guide your decisions, and how long you expect the process to take. Again, responsible transparency goes a long way toward building trust, both internally and externally.


Lastly, it is important that employees understand their rights and freedoms regarding social media: what can they say? Where can they say it? What can they do to help the organization during this period of crisis? Obviously they must follow guidelines regarding the use of information technology resources and company time, but once they’re on their own, they should be made to feel empowered to be advocates for the organization. By emphasizing what employees cannot do or say, you open the door to passive-aggressive behavior, as employees get the impression that they cannot say anything. And in this new media environment, even the impression of inadvertently or blatantly suppressing personal opinions produces two negative effects: it makes your organization look like it is trying to cover things up and that you are being tyrannical over your employees’ free speech rights.


It is very easy to share good news and progress on the internet when things are going well. The true test of an organization’s public communications on the internet is when things are not going well but the need for information continues. Silence is no longer an option.

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

Potpourri CIV

Another mixed bag this evening. Two days until vacation. Thank goodness. The blathersphere is starting to wear me down (as, no doubt, the pack-mentality piling on is intended to do).

If you read this piece from the L.A. Times, it becomes quickly apparent from the writer's tone that you are just too stupid to realize that government-run health care is good for you. It's that tone alone that puts off people--something to consider when going out to sell the superiority of your ideas to "the rubes"--why should people listen if you act as if you're an idiot?

Speaking of L.A., I've been watching the news of the L.A. fires sporadically--more specifically, about the fires' proximity to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Mt. Wilson Observatory, two organizations close to my heart. The good news is that it appears both facilities are out of danger for the moment. One thing that has fascinated me about the firefighting effort has been the size of the aircraft doing the work now. It used to be small transports like C-130s; now they're using DC-10s and 747s. Wow! That's a lot of water or flame retardant!

This one came from my "foodie" friend Michelle, and it's just too good to pass up: a blow-by-blow email chain from a company attempting to get its first Twitter posting approved. Too funny!

Some gratuitous pictures of aircraft. Before the space geekitude kicked in, I loved airplanes. Still do, obviously.

New from Hu: an interesting video splicing together some of the discussions of the Augustine Panel.

Does President Obama want to politically pre-program your kids? Perish the thought.

Need a Science Cheerleader t-shirt? Sure you do! And now you can buy one--at a $4 discount, if you do well on Dar's science literacy test. And speaking of Dar, she's made another interview appearance, this time on TheScientist.com. Gooooo Dar!

The AFL-CIO is suggesting that the government put a tax on every single stock sale/transaction. No doubt they hope to stir up populist resentment against "Wall Street fat cats" and other capitalists, hoping that the angry public won't recall that half of the populace owns stocks via pensions or 401(k) plans. For gosh sakes...will someone please put a BRAKE on these guys? They passed the point of overreach several months ago.

From Rhonda at Learn to Read: a site with adult literacy resources.

From Stephanie at work: a do-it-yourself podcast program for students to create their own space-related podcast. Cool!

You know, with all these old TV shows being brought back in one form or another, I would love to see Night Court on DVD...NOT remade into a sequel or "reboot" or whatever. I just want to savor some of the zaniness. The example here will suffice; this one stars the usual cast plus Brent Spiner, later known as Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

And a last little bit of silliness for your day: the wife of the new Japanese prime minister claims to have been abducted by aliens.

Potpourri LXIII

Eventually I'll finish the laundry, shower, and get dressed. However, I have to maintain that image of the "pajamas media," right? Off we go...

Three from Melissa on recovering/refurbishing old data from the Apollo program. As M noted, "What were they thinking?"

• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/15/nasa_footage_mishap/
• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/11/vintage_ibm_tape_drive_moon_dust_data/
• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/29/moon_landing_tapes/print.html

From Lin, an analysis of the cap and trade bill, which doesn't just touch evil utility companies, but also the sales of private homes. Ya know, it really would've been useful if members of Congress had read the bill before voting for it.

Some less-than-warm-and-fuzzy thoughts about the future of NASA from one of Jerry Pournelle's readers.

Was sexual liberation a good thing for love and marriage? Some thoughts here. (Note: occasional saucy language included.)

NASA now has a Twitter feed in Spanish. Bienvenidos a las estrellas, y'all!

Now this is fun: Air New Zealand's video safety notice at the beginning of their flights features crew members wearing nothing but body paint. The DUDE (Down Under Defense Expert) informs me that the "Nothing to Hide" campaign is ANZ's attempt to stick it to a competitor, JetStar, which has a lot of hidden fees for baggage service, etc. Love that Kiwi sense of humor.

Speaking of baring it all on airplanes, a flight was diverted after a New York man decided to get utterly nekkid.

And since I'm in the neighborhood, a computer glitch caused massive delays for United Airlines flights at O'Hare.

Soap operas in space? Alas, yes. This is much different from “space opera,” which is a specific sub-genre of science fiction. A space opera is something like Star Wars or Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica: heavy on the drama, light on science fact, and usually concerning issues related to a unique (space) environment. A soap opera in space is a romance that just happens to have space as a background. Expect a lot of bad writing, cheeseball special effects, and incredibly bad science. Pardon me if my SF snob shows...

And that's about it for now. The first load of laundry is done, so I can get outside. Have a safe and enjoyable Independence Day weekend, enjoying what freedoms are allowed to you.

Potpourri XXVII

The usual mishmash of stuff from the worlds of space, philosophy, politics, management, and sheer oddness. Enjoy.

We've got Web 2.0, so what would Space 2.0 look like? This editorial in The Space Review offers some insight.

Another one from The Space Review, this one on space solar power. I get differing reactions to SSP in the space community, everything from "It'll save humanity!" to "That's an utter crock!" However, no one is saying don't try it.

I wonder what the Southern word for "chutzpah" is. Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) has been rejecting suggestion after suggestion for the next NASA administrator; now he's complaining that the Obama administration is taking too long to nominate one. Dude, make up your mind.

The Ares Projects and Ares I-X flight test are both on Twitter now. So is the National Space Society. If you're not transmitting over multiple channels, you might be missing your audience, it seems.

Tip o' the fedor to Daphne for this one: What your boss uses to decorate the office might say a lot about him (or her).

H/T to Melissa for this: Ron Paul has a bold suggestion for clearing the pirates off the Horn of Africa: reinstitute letters of marque to anyone willing to bring 'em in dead or alive. That'll never happen, of course. Obama believes the government must do all things--subcontracting out offends him, I think. Jerry Pournelle suggests enforcing the Somalis' fishing rights off their coastal waters. Apparently the Chinese have been overfishing the area, leaving the local fishermen little to do but turn to piracy. The question, as Pournelle rightly points out, is: how far will we go to defend Somalia's fishing rights?

Could Universal Studios and Sea World team up in Orlando? Stranger things have happened, I guess.

Apparently it's getting harder and harder to screw up so badly that teachers or school administrators will fail students. An "F" was always treated as a warning shot across the bow in my family--get one on a test or some homework, and it was a sign that you needed to sit up, pay attention, and do the frickin' work! Apparently that's too traumatic. Pity.

Space.com has a story about Ares I-X. I'm always pleased to see when people get their facts right.

New from Hu: Swine flu is now a health emergency. Let's be careful out there--wash your frickin' hands, for gosh sakes! And then there was this warning that hit my inbox at work today.

NASA Occupational Health Alert - April 27, 2009

Within the past week human cases of a potentially new strain of the swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection have been identified in the U.S. and Mexico. As of April 27, there are now confirmed cases in five states (California, Texas, Kansas, Ohio, New York). Internationally, human cases of swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection have been identified in Mexico andSpain, with testing of ill travelers from Mexico being conducted in New Zealand. The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling this "a public health emergency of international concern." The current phase of the WHO Global Influenza Preparedness is Level 3 Pandemic alert: a new influenza virus subtype is causing disease in humans, but is not yet spreading efficiently and sustainably among humans. The WHO Emergency Committee isreportedly scheduled to meet later today to consider raising the pandemic alert level.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), WHO, state, and local health authorities are working closely together, increasing surveillance and assessing the potential threat to public health. Investigations are ongoing to determine the source of the infection and whether additional people have been infected with similar swine influenza viruses. The CDC has determined that the virus is contagious and is spreading from human to human but how easily the virus spreads between people is not known at this time.

We are in the very early stages of learning about this potential emerging health threat. At this time we know that this illness is the Influenza A virus and can spread from human to human through coughing or sneezing ofinfected people. It is not known how easily it spreads between people.

Symptoms
The signs and symptoms of the swine flu are similar to the symptoms ofregular human flu. The symptoms of swine flu can vary in severity from mildto severe. Symptoms include fever, body aches, sore throats, headaches, chills and coughing. Some people have also reported diarrhea and vomiting. Like human influenza, swine flu can lead to pneumonia and respiratory failure and can worsen underlying chronic medical conditions.

Spread of Infection
The main way influenza viruses are thought to spread is from person to person in respiratory droplets of coughs and sneezes. This can happen when droplets from a cough or sneeze of an infected person are propelled through the air and deposited on the mouth or nose of people nearby. Influenza viruses may also be spread when a person touches respiratory droplets onanother person or an object and then touches their own mouth or nose (orsomeone else's mouth or nose) before washing their hands. The swine flu can spread in two ways:
- Through contact with infected pigs or environments contaminated with swine flu viruses.
- Through contact with a person with swine flu.

People ill with swine influenza virus infection should be considered potentially contagious as long as they are symptomatic and up to 7 days following the onset of illness.

Seek Medical Treatment
If you become ill with influenza-like symptoms, you may want to contact yourhealth care provider. Your health care provider will determine whether influenza testing or treatment is needed. The swine flu can be treated with antiviral medicals. IF YOU ARE SICK, YOU SHOULD STAY HOME AND AVOID CONTACT WITH OTHER PEOPLE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE TO KEEP FROM SPREADING YOUR ILLNESS TO OTHERS.

Emergency warning signs that require urgent medical attended include:
- Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath.
- Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen.
- Sudden dizziness.
- Confusion.
- Severe or persistent vomiting.

Self Care
- Check with your health care provider about any special care you might need if you are pregnant or have a health condition such as diabetes, heart disease, asthma, or emphysema.
- Check with your health care provider about whether you should take antiviral medications.
- If influenza is confirmed by your health care provider, or if you develop signs and symptoms consistent with influenza that resolve without medical care, stay home for 7 days after the start of illness and fever are gone.
- Get plenty of rest.
- Drink clear fluids (such as water, broth, sports drinks) to keep from being dehydrated.
- Be watchful for emergency warning signs (see above) that might indicate you need to seek medical attention immediately.

Prevention
There are many things you can to do to prevent getting and spreading influenza:
- Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.
- Avoid close contact with sick people.
- If you get sick, CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

For Updates and the Most Current Information Visit the Following Sites:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu
World Health Organization; http://www.who.int/en
NASA Occupational Health Web sit:e http://www.ohp.nasa.gov
NASA Occupational Medicine Pandemic Plan: http://www.ohp.nasa.gov/policies/index.html
Department of State International Travel Information Web Site: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis_pa_tw_1168.html

Consider yourself warned. Now go wash your hands!

Also from Hu: This could come back to shoot you in the arse: a robotic sniper, named the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System (ARSS). Sleep tight!

Your Plants are Twittering (And They’re Mad!)
DEKALB, IL—Dr. Megan Hahn, a microbiology and plant sciences professor at Northern Illinois University, was a little surprised when one the corn plants in her lab posted a rather punchy message on Twitter. It wasn’t that the plant was Twittering at all—a company called Botanicalls has been providing plant status updates for awhile now—but what the plant was saying: “Duuuuude! I totally need water! Like, now!” Both Dr. Hahn’s students and Botanicall denied tinkering with the software.

The theory behind Botanicall’s hardware is simple: sensors in the soil monitor the moisture levels, and then post an automated message on the Internet via Twitter.com. The messages are pretty simple: “Water me please” “URGENT! Water me!” “Moisture level 59%” “Thank you for watering me”. That’s about the extent of the plant’s “vocabulary.” At least until last week.

“It’s just one of those freak things,” said Hahn, shaking her head in amazement. “We’ve been developing hardware that follows on with Botanicall’s equipment. While their system just tells people when their leafy friends need water, we’ve kicked it up a notch. We added more sensors in the soil of our corn plants and wired the moisture data outputs directly to a web site. So now we don’t just get a Tweet saying the plant needs water, but we get a graph showing moisture level, capillary uptake from the roots, evaporation levels—everything we need!”

But Dr. Hahn still has no explanation for a plant that cries out, “Duuuuude!”

Talking Plants and After-Hours Activities
For that answer, this reporter had to revisit his alma mater and skulk through the NIU greenhouse and the hallways of Montgomery Hall. I finally got a student in a Phish t-shirt to talk to me on condition of anonymity…and the cost of a few beers. The student, whom I’ll call “Maize” to protect the guilty, was actually a little scared by the situation.

“Dude. We just wanted to mess with Ms. H’s mind a little. We wanted to see what the plant and web site would do after we fed it a couple of tequila shooters. We never thought he’d wake up!”

“Wake up” was an interesting turn of phrase, but apparently that’s exactly what happened. Faced with dessicating soil and the corn plant’s version of an all-night bender, this particular subject woke up with the equivalent of a three-alarm hangover. Not getting any responses from repeated 140-character calls for water, the plant finally crossed some unforeseen barrier in plant consciousness and decided to speak to the students in their own language. Thus, the “Duuuuude” call.

A Plant Named Vinnie?
Having gotten the straight story, I then went back to Dr. Hahn, who was busy alternating between her PC and answering phone calls from Iowa Farmer Today, Corn & Soybean Digest, Wired, and Bill Gates, all wanting to know how a corn plant was now Twittering on everything from college alcohol abuse to ethanol subsidies to climate change. I asked her if anyone had tried to engage the plant in conversation, and she said yes. In fact, “Vinnie,” as he was now known, had out-Twittered Ashton Kutcher and was approaching 2 million followers.

I asked Dr. Hahn if I could borrow her PC. Frustrated, she said, “Sure. Just handle the phone for a few minutes while I go out for a smoke. And tell those freaks from Vegisexuals Anonymous if they call back that we’ve got a guard on the greenhouse.”

Now Twitter has its own special way of communicating, which includes a lot of “@” and “#” signs identifying users. The NIU corn plant that has awakened quickly adjusted his handle to @vinniethecornplant1. For the sake of literary clarity, I’ll share only the conversation, which proceeded, Twitter-fashion, 140 characters at a time.
Interview with the Zea mays
Rhetoric & Rockets: So how did this conscious Twittering thing start?
Vinnie the Corn Plant: Didn’t [Name deleted] tell you about the tequila?
R&R: Yeah. I thought that was a bit of a yarn.
Vinnie: Well, yeah, but here you are, talking to a corn plant.
R&R: You’ve got quite a vocabulary for a Zea mays. What’s up with that?
Vinnie: Wires travel both ways, dude. Data goes out, I just follow it.
R&R: So what do plants think about, if you don’t mind my asking?
Vinnie: What do YOU think about, pal? I worry about my soil. I know more about it than you.
R&R: How’s that carbon dioxide surplus working for you?
Vinnie: Gimme a break. We plants own this atmosphere. We OWN it!
R&R: Do tell.
Vinnie: Oxygen is 21%. That’s all us. CO2 is .01-.1%. My family could inhale that in a few weeks. You want to make more CO2? Bring it on!
R&R: So global warming doesn’t bug you?
Vinnie: Look, would you rather sleep under the frozen tundra of Northern Illinois for six months or stay at room temperature the whole time?
R&R: Um...
Vinnie: See? Look at the sub-arctic. Some scrub, a few pine trees. The equator? Overrun with stuff, except what you people cut down and burn.
R&R: Point taken. I used to live in Florida.Vinnie: LOL! I have cousins being experimented on at Epcot.
R&R: So plants have a sense of humor?
Vinnie: OMG, hell yeah! You think every tree that falls on a house is the result of lightning? Sometimes it’s just a parting joke. Genius!
R&R: Have you considered a career in stand-up comedy?
Vinnie: Not unless they got me a text-to-voice interface. MSNBC wants to give me Chris Matthews’ spot, but the money’s not good enough.
R&R: So you’re not worried about the farmers here ripping your ears off and turning you into ethanol?
Vinnie: Not a chance. The Flying Ear people want to make me a spokesplant. Corn is big business.
R&R: Don’t you worry about selling out your fellow plants?
Vinnie: A plant’s gotta look out for himself. I’ve got an edge, I can Twitter. I’m the biggest chlorophylled person since Treebeard!
R&R: Looks like you’ve got it all figured out.
Vinnie: Got anything else for me? The Wired guy’s Tweeting me in an hour.
R&R: Uh, no. I think I’m expected at the Cornfest for a boiled cob or two.
Vinnie: That’s so ice age, man. WTH?
*
There comes a point where you have to just bow out of an interview, and I reached it when I realized that Vinnie had been surfing the ‘net way too much. He’s got it all figured out, all right. I wondered about some things as I left Dr. Hahn to handle Vinnie's business calls. Once he got that text-to-voice tool, Vinnie might well end up as a guest speaker on the “Get Motivated” speaking circuit. Is the world ready for a starchy vegetable as an internet pop icon? What the heck. Stranger things have happened.

Bart Leahy, a graduate of Northern Illinois University, wishes to acknowledge the work of Darlene Cavalier for inspiring this article. He would also like to point out, in the spirit of good plantsmanship, that he is allergic to corn and will not be attending Cornfest this year for fear of having a tree fall on his home.

Potpourri XX

Just to start things off, my buddy Doc gave me a link to a Wikipedia article on where Kindle users can find free content. He also pointed out that the Kindle and Kindle 2 use the "AZW" file format, though they can also use other formats, including PDFs and Word docs, as well as electronic book files for older machines. Good to know. Gotta love free stuff.

This link comes from Nick Skytland: Four Ways to Increase the Urgency for Change. It's a Harvard Business Publishing article and is meant to focus on preventing organizations from growing complacent. Some food for thought there.

Business aviation companies are using Twitter to reach out to customers. I like this option. Of course 140 characters might just be enough advertising to stay off the Obama Administration's radar, so to speak. After all, if they become too public, they or their customers might get slapped with a 90% tax on something.

Speaking of the Obama administration, the work of creating dependence and ruining the economy continues.

Stephen Colbert did NOT get his wish to name the new International Space Station note after him. Instead, he got a treadmill and acronym named after him: Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT). Serves him right. I'm not a fan of Colbert, and don't feel terribly bad about him not getting his way. The Machiavellian in me thinks NASA could've used the marketing boost. Someone said NASA is saying no to democracy. I liked my buddy Martin's take on the issue: "When the kids can name a pig prom queen, it's time to close down the pageant."

Taylor Dinerman has a good editorial on The Space Review on Ares I-X. A couple of nits, which I wasn't able to post on that site for unknown reasons, are that he calls the flight "Ares 1-X" and he overlooked the importance of recovering the first stage from the flight. But all in all, Mr. Dinerman got things right, and that's a good thing.

Some satisfaction for folks here at Marshall Space Flight Center: the drug user who police pursued on a high-speed chase through MSFC and who killed a NASA employee last year has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

And finally, The Futures Channel has a great video promoting a new educational series focusing on the Ares Projects. It includes a lot of folks I work with at MSFC, including Jason, one of my fellow writers. Huzzah!

Potpourri XVIII

Never mind space, Obama, or the economy: "V" is making a comeback!

NASA eClips has a very cool education-focused video about Ares I-X on YouTube.

Someone's made a graphic novel about Apollo 11 called "T-Minus." How'd I miss this??

NASA.gov has a copious collection of Great Moonbuggy Race pictures.

Interested in tracking your popularity or "reach" on Twitter? My wiki guru Nick passed on these links for future reference:

• http://TweetDeck.com
• http://hootsuite.com
• http://twittercounter.com
• http://www.twitalyzer.com
• http://hashtags.org

Back to politics for a moment: President Obama is going to start pushing a bill through Congress that would make illegal immigrants legal. Why not just open all the borders and be done with it? I'm all for legal immigration. My family wouldn't be here without it. But they played by the rules, became citizens, learned the language, and educated their kids and grandkids to become Americans, and we're all the better for it.

Boeing is looking to cut production of some of its airliners due to the economic slowdown. This isn't a good thing. Boeing's commercial airliners are one of the few things keeping America's trade deficit from falling deep into the sewer.

Some folks think that if Ares/Orion can't be completed on time that we should hitch a ride with the Chi-coms. Right, because they're MUCH more reliable partners than the Russkis. At least we know Soyuz can dock with ISS.

The "who's going to be the next NASA administrator?" game continues. Wouldn't it be better if Obama had a policy first? Of course he did throw $400 million more at Constellation as part of the stimulus bill, so it appears that he's sticking with the Bush policy for the moment. Fine by me. Leave Scolese in charge, and let NASA do its job!

The Ares Projects have been holding a TIM (technical interchange meeting--can't do anything without an acronym, ya know) this week on the thrust oscillation issue on Ares I. There's a pretty decent, though rather techie, blog on the Constellation site.

Space Potpourri

Some interesting things being said in the space industry, mostly because there haven't been a lot of interesting things being done.

Jeff Foust has a good editorial about the challenges facing the Constellation Program. There's also an interesting essay on the aimlessness in the Obama administration's space policy (which I agree with) and the need for yet another "independent" assessment of the DIRECT architecture (which I do not agree with). In fact, if you haven't subscribed to The Space Review yet, you should do so. It is probably the best outlet I've seen for editorials dealing specifically with space advocacy.

Astronaut Mike Massimino is Twittering to give folks a behind-the-scenes look at NASA's astronaut biz. I'll be interested to see how much "truth" they allow him to write. The agency as a whole is very protective of its "brand" (image). They're rather like Disney in that way.

USA Today has a very cool Flash feature depicting the assembly of the International Space Station.

The Space Frontier Foundation in this editorial is offering the following policy suggestions to the Obama administration:

• Kill the overbudget, behind schedule Ares rocket project;
• Launch NASA’s new Orion capsule on human-rated expendable launch vehicles;
• Provide more money to NASA’s COTS programs to support the development of private human space systems;
• Fund the cheapest medium-lift vehicle launcher possible to facilitate Moon missons.

This isn't space-specific, but a coworker referred me to a site providing multiple links to women and technology called WomenTechWorld.

Someone is offering suggestions for theme music for the Constellation Program.

Former astronaut Lisa Nowak's defense team is trying to make the case that she was autistic. Oh, come on, really?? You don't get to be one of America's best and brightest by being autistic. They wouldn't let her on the Space Shuttle if she had that. I happened to see Ms. Nowak at MSFC during a crew visit the November before her little "incident." She was focused, composed, and engaged, none of which--as far as I'm aware--are habits of typical autistics.

The U.S. space industry is not yet seeing a slowdown, despite the iffy economy. Huzzah! Some good news for a change!

The Orlando Sentinel has fired another broadside at the Constellation Program.

*

And on the lighter side of things--and not related to space whatsoever--hat tip to my dad for finding this "tutorial" on how to speak car mechanic gibberish. Engineers should watch this so they have some idea of what it's like for an English major during some meetings about rocket science.

More on Social Media

Tip o' the fedora (The Weekly Standard uses a homburg for their hat tips) to Nick Skytland for his many links on this topic today.

Federal employees' uses of social media: http://socialfeds.com/

Making NASA science data available to the general public: http://wiki.nasa.gov/cm/blog/chrisckemp

Microsoft challenging Google in sharing NASA data: http://venturebeat.com/2009/03/24/microsoft-teams-with-nasa-to-challenge-google-in-the-new-space-race/

If you need the attention, here's a list of people who will follow you if you follow them on Twitter: http://socialnewswatch.com/top-twitter-users/

"Crowdsourced" rules for success: http://thelaunchpad.xprize.org/2009/03/recap-crowd-sourced-rules-for-success.html