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National Aeronautics and Space Administration Issue 1 May 2010 this issue IT Talk Open Government p.1 Gamma Rays & Cell Phones p.2 Engineering Digital Design p.3 Federal 100 Honoree p.4 Managing Editor: John Hopkins NASA Highlights Open Highlights of NASA’s Government Activities Open Government Activities Deborah Diaz named Source: Article by Robbie Schingler, Special as NASA Deputy Chief Liaison for Open Government Flagship Initiatives Information Officer Whether NASA is using social networks to allow stu- Three “Flagship” initiatives NASA Chief Information dents to interact directly with astronauts, or creating at NASA will take Open Gov- Officer (CIO) Linda Cureton a Cloud Computing Platform to give unprecedented ernment to a new level: today announced Debo- access to scientific data, NASA has embraced Open rah Diaz as the new NASA Government. These and other activities are detailed • Policy: NASA is working Deputy Chief Information in NASA’s Open Government Plan, available to the to make open source soft- Officer. Ms. Cureton said, public at www.nasa.gov/open/plan. ware development ( opensource.arc.nasa.gov ) more “I’m delighted that we are collaborative at NASA to benefit both the Agency and filling this position with a The White House issued the Open Government Direc- the public. seasoned, hands-on techni- tive calling on Executive Branch agencies to become • Technology: NASA Nebula ( nebula.nasa.gov ), as cal leader who can immedi- more open, accountable, and centered on the principles the world’s first open-source cloud computing plat- ately and seamlessly assist of transparency, collaboration, and participation (www. form, offers an easier way for NASA scientists and with implementing strategic whitehouse.gov/open). April 7 was the deadline for researchers to share large, complex data sets with changes and rebuilding the Federal Agencies to release their plans. external partners and the public. Office of the CIO.” • Culture: The creation of a new NASA Participatory NASA is expanding transparency, participation, and Exploration Office will infuse more public participa- Ms. Diaz joined the NASA collaboration and creating a new level of openness and tion into NASA’s mission. Office of the CIO (OCIO) in accountability. NASA is focusing on embedding open December as Associate CIO government into three specific aspects of operations— Unique to NASA: for Architecture and Infra- policy, technology, and culture. structure and Director of the • By engaging the public in February and March of this Information Technology In- year, NASA received 420 ideas from 280 different au- tegration Program (I3P), the thors through the online Citizen Engagement Tool (more new IT infrastructure pro- than any other Agency). gram created to consolidate My Administration is committed to creating an • NASA has given the public live access to its missions the $4.3 billion of Agency’s through NASA TV. IT and data services. As an unprecedented level of openness in Govern- • Education outreach includes programs where students experienced information “ interact with astronauts and take controls of space technology executive, she ment. We will work together to ensure the instruments remotely. is recognized as a top agent • NASA’s prize program, Centennial Challenge, has of change who has provided public trust and establish a system of trans- engaged inventors from all over the country to suc- innovative, business solu- cessfully build prototypes of technology for space. tions and developed strong parency, public participation, and collabora- partnerships between indus- NASA’s founding legislation in 1958 instructed NASA to try and government. Prior to tion. Openness will strengthen our democracy “…provide for the widest practicable and appropriate NASA, as the Chief Informa- dissemination of information….” The principles of Open tion Officer for Department and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government have been embedded in NASA operations of Homeland Security’s for 50 plus years. Science and Technology Government. Directorate, she developed NASA invites the public to comment on the plan and and implemented $1 billion —PRESIDENT OBAMA, 01/21/09 have input into the implementation of Open Government of high-profile, ground- ” initiatives. r (continued on page 2) (DCIO Diaz continued from page 1) breaking scientific programs and IT infrastructure. As she served to provide new and effective ways to fight the war on terrorism, she also served as the senior advisor on IT interoperability, biometrics, geospatial, and wireless technologies. As Deputy CIO at the U.S. Pat- Gamma-Rays and Cell Phones ent and Trademark Office, Source: Article by Melissa Gibby, Jacobs ESTS Group and she helped transform USP- GBM Operations Scientist, Science and Mission Systems Office TO electronic commerce and managed complex IT initiatives to modernize business process and data How are the most energetic on-board Fermi locate a gamma-ray and the other becomes secondary exchange systems. During explosions in the universe and an burst. There is a requirement that again. Each real-time system sends Ms. Diaz’s tenure as Deputy ordinary cell phone connected states that the time from the detection state-of-health data to a third system Associate Administrator of within MSFC’s operations center for of a burst to the receipt of the notice that alerts the GBM operations man- Citizen Services at General Fermi, NASA’s newest gamma-ray by the scientists should be no longer ager—by cell phone, of course—when Services Agency, she cre- observatory? When the Gamma-ray than seven seconds. either system has an element that is ated the government’s first Burst Monitor (GBM) onboard Fermi not functioning for some reason. The electronic government-wide detects an explosion, ground sys- The main reason for such a short laten- statusing system also sends an alert citizen portal and shep- tems are alerted, data is sent to the cy requirement is so that the worldwide to the operations manager when the herded many public-private Fermi Mission Operations Center at ground based telescopes can retrain system is healthy again. partnerships from concept Goddard Space Flight Center, and their telescopes to the reported loca- to delivery. She has pro- a cell phone text message is sent tion in hopes of catching a glimpse of The real-time system also refines vided executive leadership to the scientist on duty, either at the optical afterglows from the stellar the localization for the gamma-ray to the President’s Manage- MSFC or at the Max Planck Institute explosion. The code for much of the burst. Since the on-ground computed ment Council and was the in Germany, so he or she can start real-time system uses TCP/IP sockets, localization does not have to meet the pioneer creating many of analyzing the newest data. Al- sending data directly from a process seven-second latency requirement the first e-Government though the cell phone is a very low- on one computer to a process waiting of the on-board localizations and we initiatives such as USA. tech solution, it allows the scientist for the data on another. have more computing resources on gov (FirstGov) and USA on duty to have the freedom to ground, the refined locations should be Services. Diaz also helped venture away from his or her office. Since the real-time system for Fermi is more accurate than those obtained on- blaze a trail to sub-Saharan It is also very cool when you receive required to be functional at all times, board. These refined coordinates for Africa and Asia where she such a notice to be able to tell the system is duplicated, one at MSFC the burst are then sent to the Gamma- used her background in in- those around you that you are one and the other at GSFC. A keep-alive Ray Coordinates Network for transmit- ternational business to help of the few people in the world who signal between the two systems con- tal to the scientists worldwide. forge private-sector devel- know about a huge explosion that trols which one of them functions in opment, as an international happened millions of years ago. the primary mode and which functions The GBM operations center also consultant and with the U.S. as a secondary system. If the primary has a statusing Web site used for Agency for International The real-time system for the Fermi system has a failure in a code seg- monitoring the real-time system. This Development. r mission is an interconnected series ment, the other system will take over includes the list of the gamma-ray of computers and processes that as the primary system. When the origi- triggers that have been received in receive, process, and notify scien- nal primary sys¬tem is healthy again, it the last two weeks along with infor- tists worldwide when the detectors regains control as the primary machine mation about those triggers. Included in that information is the summary of the notices sent out to the world via NOMAD Customer Delete and Recreate Meetings Set Calendar Sharing and the Gamma-ray Coordinates Network Once a Year Delegate Permissions Properly at GSFC, the times that each of the Advocacy packets was received (both on the Council (CAC) Each time a recurring meeting series Use Sharing whenever possible primary and secondary systems), is Here to or instance is edited (people added, instead of Delegates. With Sharing and a report of the missing packets Help removed, times updated, description you can allow others to view your received both in real time and in the updated, date changed) the informa- calendar or place items directly on data received later from the regular tion is recorded in the meeting itself. your calendar. If you set your default data downlinks. The NOMAD There is a limit of 256 edits per calendar permissions to Reviewer CAC’s recurring meeting and once the (or Editor), then all NOMAD users Although the use of cell phones in objective is limit is reached errors can occur.

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