Piloting Social Networking InsideNASA

KM World 2008 Celeste Merryman, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

1 KM World 2008, Celeste Merryman, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CL#08‐3075

NASA's "birthday" is October 1, 1958


NASA's mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration,

scientific discovery and aeronautics research.

Taking astronauts and scientists into space.

KM World 2008, Celeste Merryman, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CL#08‐3075 3

Bringing the Universe down to Earth.


This Hubble image depicts the delicate filaments debris from a stellar explosion in a neighboring galaxy.

Imag

e Cred

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age Cred

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, The

Hub

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ge Tea

m (S

TScI/AURA

), Y.‐H

. Chu

(UIUC), S

. Kulka

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R. R

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KM Pain Points for NASA Geo

grap

hica

lly Dispe

rsed

• 10 centers in 8 state

• Plus many other facilities

• 18,722 civil service1; 43,500 contractors/others2

• Constellation Program work is shared across all NASA centers

Aging

Workforce

• Long duration projects mean a high probability of team turn over

• Ave age1=46.4 • Ave federal service1= 17.9 years

• Eligible for Retirement1 in ’07=328

Mission

Trans

ition

• Focus from Shuttle to Constellation means changes to buildings, workforce, contractors, and budget

• A 4 year gap between programs too!


1 As of August 2008, http://wicn.nssc.nasa.gov/ 2 Data as of June 2006, FAIR 2006

1 For civil servants only, http://wicn.nssc.nasa.gov/

About NASAsphere

Sphere: as in shape and circle of peers

Grew from 78 to 295 in 60 days via colleague invites


NASAsphere Benefits

Accelerates communication and

problem solving, creating peer‐to‐peer

communication capability

Captures individual knowledge worker know‐how for reuse by many,

creating collective intelligence

Creates peer‐to‐peer communication in context, deepening understanding

for decision making


The Radar O'Reilly Effect


Topic!

Knowledge Worker!

Knowledge Worker!

Knowledge Worker!

Knowledge Worker!

Knowledge Worker!

“The network of a

conversation

spreads based on

its topic rather

than by person-

to-person

sharing.” ~

NASAsphere

participant!

How NASAsphere Works


How NASA Used Online Social Networking for Business

Sharing a “day‐in‐the‐life” of a NASA scientist

Asking where to find critical information and data to support NASA tasks

Presenting and vetting ideas to NASA’s collective intelligence

Enhancing the employee directory with interests, expertise, and contact information


Tags Used


Yes We Overcame the Radar Effect


93% of answers were by people from a different

NASA center

Questions and Answers

Lots of people supporting NASAsphere content

Our NASAsphere Pilot Experience


Some Suggestions

Set the Expectations for Participants Set rules of engagement   Provide boundaries of “how” and “what” they can discuss to keep down,

or eliminate the “what I did last night” postings and focus on work‐related questions and comments.

Give them a task   Ask participants to do some tasks like post X number of questions,

comment on X number of questions or idea. This gives people meaning and purpose for participating during a pilot.

Allow them to invite work colleagues   Set restrictions on the backend of your invite system, tell the participants

what they are and then stand back and watch the online social network grow.


Contact Info


Celeste Merryman Knowledge Management Leader Computer Sciences Corporation

Knowledge Management & Collaboration Technologies Office NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory [email protected]