It’s not such a far-fetched idea, considering the space agency’s current push to partner with Web 2.0 companies like Twitter and save itself from turning into a dinosaur in the Internet age. Some executives at the struggling NASA believe that if the agency can adopt Web technologies like Twitter–a social network for broadcasting thoughts online or via text message–then kids and the general public will be more connected to space exploration and inspired to learn about science.
“How can NASA become hip?” NASA CoLab Project Manager Robert Schingler asked here Tuesday at NASA’s Ames Research Center. “For me, it’s allowing other individuals (and companies) to participate in the program.”
CoLab, NASA’s Collaborative Space Exploration Laboratory, hosted a one-day tech event called the Participatory Exploration Summit, which brought together representatives from across the space agency, as well as from Twitter, Creative Commons and game companies like Virtual Heroes and Virtue Arts.
CoLab’s sole purpose is to foster partnerships between the space program and tech entrepreneurs, and then develop novel applications and make use of NASA resources. To that end, it plans to open offices in San Francisco, and it’s already plotted virtual space in the virtual world Second Life.
But CoLab has a tough challenge in infusing the young, fast-paced culture of Internet technology into a government agency that’s largely slow, methodical and dominated by older scientists. Hobbled by spending cuts, NASA has increasingly turned to private industry to meet various goals for long-term space exploration, including returning to the moon in 10 years.
Now NASA is trying to reach out to the technology industry to help market itself to a generation of kids growing up online and who seem less inclined to study science or math.
According to open discussions Tuesday, NASA marketing efforts could come in the form of blogs, online videos and 3D games that simulate landing on the moon. When a NASA moderator asked the room whether people would like a stream of twitters from astronauts in space, a good portion of the small crowd raised its hand.
“We need more public support,” said Andrew Hoppin, NASA CoLab Communities manager. “As a technical-driven agency, NASA should be pushing the envelope. That’s the goal here today.”
Still, there are some minor signs that NASA is catching up with the times. Hoppin said the agency is building a social network for space alumni, for example, so that former astronauts like Buzz Aldrin can connect with peers online.
NASA scientists and employees are apparently already big fans of the social network Facebook, which is growing at a fast clip. There are more than 500 groups on Facebook that are associated with NASA, but not officially, Hoppin said. “It’s one of the most potent platforms for social networking,” he said.
The agency has also launched several blogs to communicate about internal projects both between groups and with the public. NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale started blogging this summer, for example. And although blogs have been popular for years, the fact that NASA officials are adopting the tools is a breakthrough for generating internal awareness for projects, Hoppin said.
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Why do we love Facebook over MySpace? It has been said that Facebook is becoming more popular than MySpace, because of it’s slick and clean interface. The fact that you can’t corrupt it with your evil, non-valid HTML in your profile, means that there are no browsing issues and it’s generally safer to surf. But with the recent introduction of Facebook Apps, I find that these issues are creeping over to them.
Don’t get me wrong, the whole apps idea is brilliant and has caused huge excitement amongst Facebook users. It seems to be a great marketing tool for companies who have built these apps as well, which encourages more to be built. But have you had a look at the API they rely on? Facebook sends all of this data through to anyone who wishes to use the API, which they can use themselves. Ok so I put in my birthday, but do I really want other companies creating databases full of information about me? My full name, address, religion, sex, political views and even a picture of me can be taken without me even knowing it. So why did I put it on Facebook? Well my profile used to be safe, you had to login to view it, and then you actually had to be my friend before you could see that information. But now Facebook will just shove it all into an XML document and let companies do whatever they want with it. The comfort of Facebook privacy is no longer there, and I refuse to add any apps to my profile.
Another thing is that some of these apps are really badly coded and just mess up the page. You might as well inject your own HTML, as attempts to manipulate aspects of your profile don’t seem to quite cut it.
Finally the apps are hosted on the developers server, and this tends to slow down the page. Normally on an ADSL connection my profile would load in 2-3 seconds, but after adding 5 or 6 popular applications, loading time increased by 200%.
The result, these Facebook apps are slowly killing the site. Get it whilst it lastes, I think the Facebook era is slowly coming to an end…
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Facebook, which says it’s making a big announcement this week, is trying to keep details under wraps. But that hasn’t stopped the Internet’s rabid gossip mill.
Last month, word began to circulate that Facebook was working on a deal to introduce third-party widgets (embeddable code containing external content like music or video) into its member profiles. And early in May, several blogs reported that Facebook was rumored to be launching a music service on Monday–a bit of speculation that does not appear to have been true. But one thing that is confirmed is that Facebook will hold an event in San Francisco on Thursday that the company touts as “the unveiling of the next evolution of Facebook.”
Monday’s Wall Street Journal appears to have leaked some details about the event, which Facebook has otherwise kept on the down-low. Thursday’s event will kick off “a new strategy to let other companies promote their services on special pages” within Facebook, the article by Vauhini Vara speculated, citing sources familiar with the deal who added that Facebook did not seem to have any plans for revenue sharing. “An online retailer could build a service in Facebook to let people recommend music or books to their friends,” Vara continued, “or a media company could let groups of users share news articles with each other.”
A source close to the partnerships told CNET News.com Monday that the Wall Street Journal article was largely accurate, but hinted that there would be a distinct focus on user-generated content and third-party widgets. The undisclosed lineup of partners, the source added, will be an impressive one.
While Facebook allows members to “share” bits of content through links on their profiles, it currently does not permit them to embed code for third-party widgets. Its chief rival, MySpace.com, does, but has opted to block content from some widget manufacturers, typically citing terms-of-service violations or copyright complaints. Since then, MySpace has reportedly been pursuing a strategy of acquisitions rather than partnerships when it comes to widgets.
A Facebook representative said the company “really can’t comment on anything that’s speculation or rumor at this point” and had not officially spoken to the Wall Street Journal about the details published Monday.
Facebook, which launched a classified ads service earlier this month, had initially sent an invitation to members of the press in late April. The invitation said the May 24 event would reveal the site’s “vision to empower developers worldwide with the Facebook Platform,” and would include a “hackathon” with Facebook engineers as well as external developers and partners. Facebook has already opened an API to let developers in and create third-party applications centered around Facebook accounts, but Thursday’s announcement will presumably open the site up a bit more.
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