NASA's Invitation-Only Stealth Tweetup is Underway at JSC
Keith’s note: If you have been paying attention to NASA’s press releases this past week you know that there a series of NASA social media events at all of NASA’s field centers next week. NASA does a lot of these events and goes out of its way to issue invitations for people to apply to attend. You can see the announcements for all of them here – all except one. If you go to this listing of people tweeting with the tag #tweeunion you will see that there is a NASA social media event underway at NASA JSC today – right now, in fact. But NASA never announced it. NASA JSC PAO, NASA HQ PAO, and the NASA Social team knew nothing about it until it was underway. This event was organized by NASA JSC personnel and attendees were privately invited – with no opportunity for anyone else in the United States to apply. So … you can follow the tweets from this private viewing party as these #spacetweeps brag among themselves about how special they are to be invited to play with NASA’s toys – while no one else can.
Keith’s update: As best I understand from the #tweeunion tweets I have been getting is:
1. This is not a NASA social so who cares what I think
2. Its a bunch of friends getting together so we can do whatever we want
3. (By interpolation) Anyone can do this (if they can’t why can’t you?)
I wonder what charge code the dozen or so NASA JSC employees who have spent 3-4 hours with this “bunch of friends” charge to? Do not get me wrong – the more people who see the inside workings of NASA and tell the outside world – the better. But these are all people who have already been to multiple NASA social events. No one else ever had a chance to apply for today’s multi-hour personalized tour. They even joked earlier today about this as being “mission impossible” and have not even bothered to use #spacetweeps or #NASAsocial or even #NASA to tag their tweets – the usual way one would expect social media types to enhance their reach. In other words they are deliberately avoiding the redistribution of their tweets to a much wider audience which is a direct contradiction of what the whole NASA Social thing is supposed to be about in the first place.
But this is a “bunch of friends” getting together at NASA expense so who cares.
One thing that should be straightforward to discern regrading these Tweetups is how many are repeat attendees. On the face of it, it sure seems like there are at least some. I doubt there’s a lack of applicants, so why are the same people going again and again?
Its even worse than that – no one was allowed to apply for this – these people were all hand-selected and invited in secret.
what is the point? A day off of work like a field trip when you were in elementry school? The pictures seem like they are not so much attendees as visitors like at the tourism center.
Yeah, that seems off. Even it was just friends and family I would have assumed those visits would be restricted to special events and family days. Either way I hope it doesn’t hurt the actual NASA Social program. That’s a great program NASA has. Just needs to make certain it is as open to all as possible and not become some sort of clique. The more diverse the attendees the better the results.
Everyone was allowed to apply for this. Quoting from the page you linked to: “Social media users interested in attending should register for an
in-person event at one of 10 locations throughout the country.
Registration for the NASA Social closes at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 28.
Participants will be selected from online submissions.” It also does list Johnson Space Center along with all the other NASA centers.
Your criticism doesn’t make sense.
You are confusing the agency wide social media event NEXT MONDAY with the stealth NASA social at JSC TODAY. NASA Public Affairs knew nothing about today’s event NASA Social Team knew nothing about this. No NASA announcement for applications was made. This was all done privately. DO you see today’s JSC event listed on that page? No.
Hi Keith! I’m sorry if it wasn’t clear to you on the day of the event, but this was not a NASASocial event, stealth, public, or otherwise, so it wouldn’t be listed on the NASASocial page. It was simply a tour – a group of friends who had met at official NASASocial events thought it would be fun to see each other again in a spacey location like JSC. It’s not unusual for #SpaceTweeps to meet up outside of NASASocial events; they could just have easily visited Florida, Washington DC, etc. The #tweeunion hashtag was for the group to track content from their Twitter Reunion (tweeunion), far from a deliberate attempt to keep fans and followers from seeing what they did. All activities were cleared with JSC PAO through proper channels beforehand, and the group was not just allowed to but encouraged to tweet about what they were seeing and learning to help spread the word about what goes on at JSC. Hopefully this helps clear things up for you!
NASA spent taxpayer dollars on this – several dozen federal civil servants and contractors were paid to provide your super secret special tour – a tour none of the remaining 300 +million U.S. taxpayers ever even had a chance to apply for… and no one outside of a few space tweeps ever knew about this. NASA PAO knew nothing about this in advance. I asked. They told me so – formally. Call NASA HQ PAO if you have any doubts about this. Meanwhile: Hooray — you like NASA. You are not all that special. Sit down and let someone else have a chance to get a fresh close-up look at NASA.
Excuse me, I’m sorry if my comment upset you, please know that it was not meant to in any way. I know that JSC PAO knew, and our visit to NASA was not at all as you describe it, but I’m not going to argue with you about it.
Um, YOU decided to post comments here. I did not ask you too. I am not upset – just annoyed – like a lot of other people. FWIW the people involved in this effort at JSC have admitted that it was a mistake to hold your little rogue social. Have a nice day.
Why do you get special treatment?
The Chosen Ones?
https://www.flickr.com/phot…
I bet the visitors, separated by a wall of glass 40+ feet up mind you, were wondering how they get into this tour.
Assuming that this is a JSC External Relations Office function, that group had been suffering from a management vacuum for years. Its less a problem with the technical people than it is with the top leaders. They do not seem to have a clue, and if you take a look at their backgrounds, most have no serious experience or education in the fields they oversee. It seems to be a common NASA theme.