If you use the search engine at https://t.co/XMMHKxgwON to find "astrobiology" the top link is a post from 2003. The actual official main link for @NASA's Astrobiology program is https://t.co/igd6rpgpkl Can't find it in the search results. But Google finds it. #astrobiology #NASA pic.twitter.com/Jsu74XtDPW — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) March 25, 2021 Keith’s note: Earlier this week I pointed out that a search for “education” on the NASA.gov website did not […]

Keith’s note: Websites are a thing that people have been doing for a quarter of a century. Despite all of the fancy graphics and tricks there are some basic things a good website should do. NASA has lots of websites – more than any other government agency. The agency’s Internet reach is truly global. But it gets this global reach in spite of itself. Its web presence is a jumbled […]

Keith’s 7 October update: Today NASA JPL issued a press release “NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds an Ancient Oasis on Mars” It includes the text: “For more about NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover mission, visit: https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/ https://nasa.gov/msl“ JPL has the release posted here with the same text and imagery as is used by NASA HQ’s version here. But if you go to https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/ and dig a little bit to “news and events” […]

The Science of Social Media Strategy, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA “With this rapidly evolving platform, informed strategy is key. During a recent review, we took a look at all of the social media accounts associated with NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. We found that there are around 300 accounts across 8 platforms (Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter and YouTube). Although well-intended in all cases, our initial “more is better” strategy […]

Keith’s note: NASA used some rather expensive astronaut time to set up this photo, take it, send it back to Earth, and post it online. This project “NASA, UN Photo Competition Highlights Why Space Matters on Earth“ announced by NASA on 16 June 2015. The intent was good. Seriously. But looking at the follow-up and popularity of the #whyspacematters hashtag on Twitter … well, its not so good. Too bad. […]

Keith’s note: The other day NASA sent out media advisories urging news media to cover NASA-sponsored and related events at the Fall AGU meeting in San Francisco from 9-13 December. But as is usually the case NASA cannot seem to coordinate among itself when more than one center is involved. NASA HQ and NASA Ames put out media advisories that state “Briefings will be streamed for registered journalists on the […]

NASA, Harvard & TopCoder Partner to Develop a Secure Solar System Internet Protocol “TopCoder, the world’s largest professional development and design community, with NASA and the Harvard-NASA Tournament Lab (at Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science), today announced the launch of a series of innovation challenges that will develop foundational technological concepts for disruption tolerant deep space networking. NASA has made significant progress in developing Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) protocols […]

Protest slows NASA open source project, FCW “The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s plans to transition to a content management system with open source architecture are on hold for a little while. The agency awarded a $40 million blanket purchase agreement in mid-December to Rockville, Md.-based InfoZen to replace the agency’s existing CMS – operated for several years by eTouch Federal Systems LLC – with open source architecture to run […]

Keith’s 24 Sep 11:45 am note: According to a Tweet by @RPISciDean (Laurie Leshin): “From Jim Green at #CAPS: Traffic on the ENTIRE INTERNET increased by 30% during landing of @MarsCuriosity — wow! Go #MSL!” I have asked NASA PAO if they can confirm Jim Green’s claim – as relayed by Laurie Leshin. Keith’s 24 Sep 6:30 pm update: No answer yet. This would be a rather remarkable accomplishment for […]

NASA Is the Government’s One True Viral Hit Factory, Atlantic Wire “NASA may only consume0.5 percent of the federal budget, but it generates practically all of Uncle Sam’s viral marketing buzz.Never was that more apparent than on Monday morning following the successful Mars landing of Curiosity, the biggest and most advancedspacecraft ever dispatched to another planet. In an explosion of tweets, Tumbls, status updates, and blog posts, the Internet showed […]