Gadgetory

Columbia Columbia this is huge nao outdoor either the EPA is progressing beautifully there's nothing up the flying out I guess you're about the only person around it doesn't have TV recovery to the main part of the Nasr Charter dictates that the agency share its activities and results so the missions and the data with the widest audience possible and it doesn't specify how you need to do it just that it needs to be done and so with the changing media landscape a lot of people don't get news from nightly news or newspapers anymore they get it online the world of South by Southwest is typically reserved for fresh-faced startups in Silicon Valley stalwarts but this year one of the biggest presences was NASA in addition to talks panels and astronaut meet and greets the agency even brought along a 12,000 pound model telescope coming to South by as part of NASA's larger effort to have a quote hipper more accessible image and that effort has had varying degrees of success my management said you're gonna have to start tweeting just like you do news release or talk to media this is part of your job and I rolled my eyes and I said okay whatever you say boss and I did it and actually i'll change for me personally during the hubble space telescope mission there was a spacewalk occurring and there was a lull in the spacewalk and i decided to see what the conversation happening was and when I went and saw that feed and people were asking questions they were on the edge of their seat made me realize people love space they're following this stuff and before there was always someone between me and the public it was the news media it was the internet but all sudden I was able to you know connect directly the public have a conversation with them the agency has more than 480 highly active social media accounts across Twitter Facebook YouTube Google+ and more all blasting out daily information about NASA's many projects it gives us a voice these little things these little things before that were happening in asked that we're great they're potentially changing our lives here in aeronautics and space and technology they were happening before they were happening in a vacuum nobody knew about them a lot of the stuff you see on social media coming out from NASA comes from the experts I've space twice I would you know fly to the window of the space station see this incredible sight get a camera take a picture of it and then I could send it out through the different social media platforms instantly so this is what it look like this is what the sunset looked like at Corsica yesterday or today and be able to do that have a real time you know interaction it really was a way to bring people along on the space missions not just as spectators but it's fellow crew mates if we treat it like traditional media you know like press releases or you know just making press statements that are one directional we're missing the point and the viral success of the cheeky mars curiosity rover twitter account has encouraged the agency to mix humor in alongside facts and science currently mars curiosity has about 1.3 million followers on twitter we've done several amas with different team members one of them is the number for ama of all time most people really love it and respond to it very very well if we drop a song lyric or a movie quote he'll be like oh my gosh oh my gosh that formula earned curiosity more than 1.3 million followers and invigorated the agency's social media strategy but it's unclear exactly what NASA is trying to accomplish and whether it will benefit the agency long term given the agency's perennial budget troubles and it's documented lack of focus is it time for NASA to get serious about social our job is to tell the story to the widest audience possible and if someone's going to get that message through a parody video and there to learn something we don't do things that are just silly for the sake of being silly we do it for the to get that information out and if there's real content being communicated you know whether it's social media whether it's a cute YouTube video whether it's a funny photo if we're sharing information what the agency is doing to help better us here on earth I think that has value and I think people get that