NASA’s Open Government Team saw a great turnout in citizens from around the world gathering for 48 hours to develop software code, technology, and solutions.  Teams from every continent gathered to solve challenges that were relevant to both space exploration and social need.   From 4/21-22, 2,083 collaborators from 111 organizations in 25 cities and 17 countries addressed 71 challenges.  They created 101 unique solutions in 48 hours with 50 submitted for global judging.

I had the pleasure of manning the San Francisco site.  It was unseasonably warm in SFO – a sweltering 85 degrees.  The coders consumed massive quantities of waffles, bagels, and pizza to fuel their passion for space and their strong desire to contribute to outcomes that improved life for all of us on this amazing blue marble.  Tech Shop, which gives the initial impression of a high school shop class, provided the perfect atmosphere for the makers and shakers. 

After my last blog, it was clear that I needed to acknowledge the unsung heroes also known as Geeks.  From his book Leading Geeks, Paul Glen defines them (…uh, us) as “… the highly intelligent, usually introverted, extremely valuable, independent-minded, hard-to-find, difficult-to-keep technology workers who are essential to the future of the organization.” Another characteristic of Geeks, according to Glen is that they lots of love, caffeine, carbohydrates, and saturated fat. 

Maybe it is no surprise that these workers are hiding in data centers, heads down developing web sites, or fixing problems on laptops – drinking Red Bull and eating pizza, of course.  Yesterday’s Geeks are masquerading today as CIOs, CTOs, or some flavor of manager or executive (before Red Bull it was coffee or Mountain Dew and pizza). And what of this thing called programming?  Who does it now?  Well, Geeks did and they still do!

I found a blog from a retired Geek who can’t get programming out of his system and furthermore understands the value of the skills needed to support heritage code that solve celestial mechanics problems for NASA.  Yes, his name is David Eagle, he’s still going a bit of work for NASA Kennedy Space Center and he is a Geek.  He loves to do the things that Geeks love to do – which is to solve problems.  He admits: 

“The computer programming I do is not all about making money. It’s a way to keep my mind sharp (and to prevent it from totally turning to mush!) and it’s fun, too. I’m currently semi-retired, working part-time at Kennedy Space Center.  After 30+ years in the business, it can be hard to just walk away. I love to solve problems, especially those that involve optimization of space flight mechanics problems.”

A Geek after my own heart.

Geeks are people who deliver technology innovations no matter what era you are from.  When you find them, give them a hug.  You may in fact wonder if you are a Geek.  Here are some clues (feel free to add more).  You know you’re a Geek if …

…you see the world in 4K pages.

…you have an iPhone, a blackberry, an iPad, a laptop, a PC, and a MAC. 

…you know what thrashing is and believe it is inherently evil.

…you know what ASP, HASP, and JES are but can’t remember your kids’ names.

…you loved Geometry and hated the prom.

…you can’t remember phone numbers but you remember IP addresses.

…you use the terms do-loop and no-op in non-technical contexts.

More …?

Linda Cureton, Geek CIO

This month marks the end of an era in NASA computing. Marshall Space Flight Center powered down NASA’s last mainframe, the IBM Z9 Mainframe.  For my millennial readers, I suppose that I should define what a mainframe is.  Well, that’s easier said than done, but here goes -- It’s a big computer that is known for being reliable, highly available, secure, and powerful.  They are best suited for applications that are more transaction oriented and require a lot of input/output – that is, writing or reading from data storage devices.  

They’re really not so bad honestly, and they have their place.  Things like virtual machines, hypervisors, thin clients, and swapping are all old hat to the mainframe generation though they are new to the current generation of cyber youths. 

In my first stint at NASA, I was at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center as a mainframe systems programmer when it was still cool. That IBM 360-95 was used to solve complex computational problems for space flight.   Back then, I comfortably navigated the world of IBM 360 Assembler language and still remember the much-coveted “green card” that had all the pearls of information about machine code.  Back then, real systems programmers did hexadecimal arithmetic – today, “there’s an app for it!”

 But all things must change.  Today, they are the size of a refrigerator but in the old days, they were the size of a Cape Cod.  Even though NASA has shut down its last one, there is still a requirement for mainframe capability in many other organizations.  The end-user interfaces are clunky and somewhat inflexible, but the need remains for extremely reliable, secure transaction oriented business applications. 

//LCURETON JOB (NASA,CIO)

Ok, so I’m on a cruise and writing a blog about technology.  I’m not weird; I’m a CIO – same thing, right?  At sea with two girlfriends who work for NASA on our annual winter vacation.  Maybe there’s something about working at NASA that makes us overly integrated with Information Technology.  Attached here is a picture of Stephanie, Tonjua, and I on a New Jersey shore overlooking Atlantic City in extreme gratitude of a much-coveted cell phone signal.  Or perhaps “bleeding NASA blue” means more than just a mindset, it’s a lifestyle. 

Jason, We Have a Problem

I went as long as possible before I finally turned data roaming on so I could check my email.  Email is like crack … it hooks you and is addictive, especially if you get hundreds per day.  After the email finished downloading, I thought I’d peek at just a few only answering the most important ones.  After a while, I got sucked in and the tempo of my replies started to increase exponentially.  Finally, I got a nasty reply from my special assistant, Jason.  WILL YOU STOP REPLYING AND SENDING EMAILS -- YOU ARE ON VACATION!  Oops.  Busted.

I got revenge the next day though.  He asked me to approve something really quick.  Sadly, I had done a reset system clear on all the passwords stored in my head.  I guess life somehow will go on. 

Let Me Check My Book

We were blessed on our cruise to share a table with Brian D. from Baltimore.  Sometimes, it’s a crapshoot about who you get matched up with during dinner, but this time we got lucky and were with him and two of his lovely friends, Aunt Erika and Aunt Veronica (who we found out hits back).  The Divas and I invited them to an event coming up soon and Brian said he would “…have to check his book, which is up in the cabin”.  A book?  Yes, he does not have a cell phone or a smart phone and uses paper and pencil to keep his schedule.  That was a jaw-dropping moment for sure.  But, as a thought of it and reflected all the Enterprise Calendar problems I’m dealing with, maybe his technology works better than NASA’s. 

Compare and contrast this with our laugh of the week from girlfriend and cruise mate Tonjua.  Earlier this month she was waiting for the designated time to pick up her daughter Maleah.  Out of the blue, she got a call from her 10-year old.  After checking the caller id, Tonjua questioned her about what phone she was calling from.  She declared it her phone.  Maleah’s mother reminded her that she did not and could not have a cell phone.  The young tween then explained to her mother and NASA Enterprise Architect about how she found the app on the internet that works with the new iPod Touch she got for Christmas (based on specific engineering requirements she gave to Santa Claus).  She told this maternal technologist that she has unlimited texting and ten minutes of voice free each month.  Mom is devastated.  Now she has to impose security restrictions on the application layer!

Security is Personal

Finally, I learned a bit about security from my fellow cruisers.  This cruise happened a few scant days after a disturbing cruise disaster at sea. 

In IT Security, CIO’s spend a lot of time with “check the box” compliance.  We do all kinds of things to make people feel secure – 12-character passwords, two-factor authentication, and nice familiar logos giving assurance that someone is looking out for you.  However, at the end of the day, we need to look out for ourselves.  

The cruise is always started the lifeboat drill.  Most passengers merely tolerate this annoyance and view it as a delay for their week of fun.  This particular cruise, the Baltimore passengers were even more annoyed because it interrupted the last two minutes of the playoff game between the Ravens and the Texans.  Cell phones were forbidden and we had to line up at our muster stations and listen to the obligatory safety instructions.  But, this time, a hush came across the crowd as the captain explained the procedures for evacuation and use of the lifeboats.  I felt even safer knowing that others, like me, were figuring out how to use the lifeboats themselves. 

I guess the Technology Divas might survive this week with limited use of technology and television.  Hey, but someone on the back row did sneak in their cell phone during the lifeboat drill.  We were getting intermittent game highlights sandwiched between important safety information.  Houston had a problem that day, because Baltimore beat them in a game exciting to the very end.  

 Linda Cureton, CIO, NASA

NASA launched apps@NASA (http://apps.nasa.gov), a website where NASA employees and contractors can download mobile apps that securely access NASA systems.  These apps enable our users to perform critical job functions at anytime from anywhere via personal and NASA mobile devices.  

This is part of a full suite of services that is provided by the NASA Enterprise Applications Competency Center (NEACC).  The NEACC resides at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.  It is supported by SAIC under the Enterprise Applications Service Technologies (EAST) contract of our Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P).  The NEACC’s role is to help NASA improve business processes and to deploy enabling technology needed to implement our Agency’s strategic plan. 

A wide range of services are available under NEACC’s Center for Internal Mobile Apps (CIMA).  This includes the ability to host, distribute, and provide support for internal mobile applications; the ability to develop internal mobile applications for NASA mission needs; and the ability to provide secure NASA-approved methods for authentication and access to Agency internal resources. 

Even though apps@NASA is only available to NASA employees and contractors (don’t you wish you worked at NASA?), the use of internal apps stores has a broad interest.  There’s a lot of debate in the IT community relative to the use of mobile devices in the workplace in general.  Whether or not IT providers are ready or not, mobile devices both enterprise-issued and personally-owned are in the workplace.  This service advances us a bit further beyond debate and into the world where IT service providers must enter – a world where the driving force of technology and customer expectations advance faster than policy and procurement cycles and the restraining force of security and legal issues like e-Discovery and records management keep our feet firmly grounded in reality. 

Managing diversity like this is where CIO’s tread carefully.  apps@NASA is a first small step for the mankind that work at NASA into a daunting world where customer expectations are measured in hours or minutes and not in 18-month software develop lifecycles. 

Linda Cureton, NASA CIO

 Guest Blogger: Deborah Diaz, Deputy CIO of NASA

Our world population has doubled in the past 50 years.  We had three billion in 1959, four billion in 1974, five billion in 1987 and six billion in 1998.  A little over one week ago, the human population on planet Earth reached seven billion. This marks an important milestone for our species. Fifty years ago, shortly before John F. Kennedy issued his challenge to reach the moon, we had just crossed the three billion mark. This expansion is a testament to our ability to produce, grow, and connect. Perhaps the most important innovation tying us together since then has been the advent of the public Internet. As we’ve grown and become more dispersed over the planet, the Internet has allowed us to instantaneously connect and communicate in new and exciting ways.

Although we may still see the Internet largely as a productivity tool, or as a way to access information, it’s become so much more than that. It’s a collaboration platform that is bringing us together.  With the acceleration of digital convergence and increasingly pervasive use of digital devices to access all manner of information, the Internet has become a platform for participation.  Each second, the world’s information is increasingly sorted, sifted, and combined in various useful and creative ways by communities of people from all corners of the world.  Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and now Google+ are reshaping human interactions and helping us connect to one another.  

As an agency trusted with charting the universe and expanding human knowledge, NASA has long been at the forefront of using the Internet to communicate with and involve citizens in our mission of space exploration, scientific discovery, and aeronautics research. NASA had one of the first websites on the Internet in the 90s, obtained one of the first accounts on Twitter in 2007, and began Tweeting in late 2008.  We have now launched our NASA presence on Google+ as the first government agency on the platform.

This is an exciting step for NASA and we have already seen enormous interest from the Google+ community - we had over a thousand new followers in the first hour!  We look forward to exploring this new engagement platform and innovating how NASA shares information.  

Deborah Diaz

NASA Deputy Chief Information Officer