a collective intelligence and learning community for and by NASA knowledge workers that disseminates mission-related inf
Findings from the NASAsphere Pilot Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology Knowledge Arciteture and Technology Task Report written by: Celeste Merryman JPL Pilot Team: Celeste Merryman, pilot manager, Computer Sciences Corporation, NASA JPL Dougals Hughes, project manager, NASA JPL Copyright 2008 California Institute of Technology, Government Sponsorship Acknowledged
Version‐8/20/08 CL#08‐4654
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FINDINGS FROM THE NASASPHERE PILOT
Executive Summary W HY S OCIAL N ETWORKING Because NASA is more that just one expert and one center. New ideas and new solutions for NASA’s complex missions require input from a geographically dispersed community of knowledge workers. By providing an online social network, NASA creates a collective intelligence and learning community for and by NASA knowledge workers that disseminates mission-related information broadly and quickly.
P URPOSE OF THIS R ESEARCH In order to investigate how NASA knowledge workers would use and apply online social networking in the NASA environment, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Knowledge Architecture and Advanced Technologies team developed and implemented a social networking pilot, called NASAsphere. The purpose of this social networking pilot was to investigate adoption and use of online social networking technology by NASA employees and contractors to cross-center and organizational boundaries and facilitate collective intelligence. The NASAsphere pilot team used a multi-phased approach to the investigation. During the course of this pilot, a great deal of data and information was collected to provide a picture of how NASA knowledge workers would use online social networking. This document presents information on the NASAsphere pilot and includes the pilot description, findings, and recommendations.
R ESEARCH Q UESTIONS
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Would NASA employees and center contractors participate in social networking pilot? Would NASA employees and center contractors find social networking a useful way to interact with other NASA employees and contractors? Would social networking be used by multi generations? Would NASA employees and center contractors use social networking to discuss work related topics? Would NASA employees and center contractors find social networking useful enough to invite their colleagues?
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FINDINGS FROM THE NASASPHERE PILOT
Executive Summary W HAT IS NASA SPHERE NASAsphere is an online social network that enables employees to move across physical boundaries established by disparate locations of centers, to move across traditional communication boundaries established by organizations, and to move outside personal networks, in order to share and foster collective intelligence for the betterment of conducting NASA business. Eightyseven people responded to an inquiry to join the pilot.
HOW IT WORKS As described by a NASAsphere participant: “The network of a conversation spreads based on its topic rather than by person-to-person sharing.”
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FINDINGS FROM THE NASASPHERE PILOT
Executive Summary WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO NASA
R ESEARCH F INDINGS NASAsphere Participants By the end of the pilot, at least one person from every NASA center participated. Figure 1 below, presents NASAsphere participants by NASA center. NASAsphere participants invited 398 of their colleagues from around NASA, with 55% acceptance rate. The NASAsphere community grew from 78 activated accounts to 295 by the end of the 60-day pilot. Figure 1. Graph of NASAsphere participants by NASA center at the start and end of the pilot.
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FINDINGS FROM THE NASASPHERE PILOT
Executive Summary RESEARCH FINDINGS NASAsphere Participant Activity – Questions, Ideas, Pages, Group Numbers of answers and comments posted in response to “questions,” “ideas,” and “pages” shows people sharing knowledge and collaborating. See Figure 2 for actual participation numbers. Ninety-three percent (93%) of the questions answered were by people different center than that of the person who posted the question.
93% of answers were from a different NASA center
Figure 2. Posting type and numbers of NASAsphere postings.
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FINDINGS FROM THE NASASPHERE PILOT
Executive Summary RESEARCH FINDINGS Participants and NASAsphere’s Future In a NASAsphere participant user experience survey, participants were asked “What do you recommend should happen with NASAsphere?” “How frequently would you read NASAsphere?” and “How frequently would you contribute to NASAsphere?” Figure 3 below shows the survey responses based on the 53 people that responded.
Figure 3. Response percentages on questions from the NASAsphere Participant User Experience Survey.
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FINDINGS FROM THE NASASPHERE PILOT
Executive Summary Summary Findings & Conclusions The findings from the pilot are presented in more detail in the body of the report. Below is summary of the findings in broad categories (see Figure 4 below).
Figure 4. Summary of the findings and conclusions from the NASAsphere pilot.
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FINDINGS FROM THE NASASPHERE PILOT
Executive Summary RECOMMENDATIONS The recommendations are discussed in greater detail in the body of the report. Figure 5 is a high-level summary of the recommendations based on information from the NASAsphere pilot.
Figure 5. High-level recommendations from the NASAsphere pilot.
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