OpenSpace in the Open Source Community

Innovation through Open DataNASA’s open data convenes global citizens

through the International Space Apps Challenge to solve mission-relevant challenges.

Space Apps is NASA’s incubator innovation program to fulfill federal open data mandates to spur innovation.

Beth Beck, NASA’s Open Innovation Program ManagerOffice of the Chief Information Officer

Innovation through Open Data

2012

2013

2014

2015

25

83

95

133

101

770

671

947

Solutions ProducedEvents

Space Apps: 2012-2015

Beth Beck, NASA’s Open Innovation Program ManagerOffice of the Chief Information Officer

2015

http://www.spaceappschallenge.org/

http://spaceapps.nyc/

http://j.mp/toSpaceVideos

Twitter: @SpaceApps, @SpaceAppsNYC

Meetup: http://meetup.com/Space-Apps-NYC/

http://star-api.herokuapp.com/

Over 350 people applied to attend the event, coming from a myriad of universities, institutions, and tech

startups. We had participants attend from Buzzfeed, Condé Nast, Etsy, Microsoft, The New School, New York Times, New York Public Library, ThoughtWorks, Twitter,

and Viacom.

How To Organize A Community?• Communication: we need to connect with our technologists & maintain relationships

★ Regular meetups, work sprints, compensation / alternative forms of recompense• Low Barriers To Entry: tutorials (screencasts), glossaries, excellent documentation

★ Domain expert + technologist = FLAWLESS VICTORY• Decomposition: extremely atomic tasks paired with tons of instruction

★ A good technologist can build anything from a good spec• Planning: a highly detailed public roadmap, very specific objectives, identify skills

★ This keeps everyone on target, keeps confusion to a minimum• Organization: keeping clean records of everything

★ Searchable knowledge bases (Stack Exchange?), mailing list archives• Public Engagement: capture imaginations of all levels of contributor

★ Zooniverse, SETI@HOME, EINSTEIN@HOME★ Tie-ins to upcoming NASA/ESA/SpaceX/Lightsail/Anybody’s missions

Stuff To Watch Out For

• Participation Inequality: the 1-9-90 rule (Jakob Neilsen)★ Build several levels of contributing activity into every major task

• Bad Actors: nothing kills community faster than a few rotten apples★ Code of Conduct, Conventions and Standards, Terms and Conditions

• Loss of Diversity: inclusivity should always be top of mind★ NASA has always emphasized this! (also relates to Code of Conduct)

• Lost Motivation: sometimes nobody wants to do what must be done★ There is nothing wrong with incentivizing or establishing bounties

• Losing Users: we must know how users use it to build what’s needed★ Make user profiles, understand the most common configurations and use

cases• Obscurity: no one’s going to use it unless we tell them about it

★ Public demonstrations, highlight UGC - Evangelize!!

Thank You!

Mike Caprio

twitter: @mik3cap

mik3cap@gmail.com

http://mikecapr.io