NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

As part of NASA’s Open Government plan released on April 7th, 2010, we asked each the participating organizations to set milestones for integrating additional components of Open Government into their programs at the three month, six month, one year, and two year marks. It’s been just about three months since the release of the plan, and we’re happy to report that there has been much progress in making NASA more transparent, participatory, and collaborative in line with the values of President Obama’s Open Government Initiative. From gaining approval to release open source software on GitHub and Sourceforge to creating a new collaborative portal for teachers to interact with NASA, we’re striving to incorporate open government into every facet of our mission. Some ideas, on the other hand, have taken a little longer than we anticipated and need some extra time in order to be done correctly. To articulate the status of all of these milestones, we’re launching the new Open Government Status Dashboard, which details the status of all 39 three-month goals in an easy-to-read format. We’ll work to keep this status page updates as milestones are achieved.

We hope the new Status Dashboard will make it easy for you to track the progress of our goals and inform you of new and exciting things within NASA. As we said in the original plan, all of these goals are fluid – you’ll see things added, deleted, or moved around as we work to determine the best path towards openness. If you have any questions or comments, we encourage you to use the NASA Open Government Plan IdeaScale website, which we’ll be monitoring for ideas on how to best move forward in the future.

Timeline Category Project Description Progress 6 Months Encourage partnerships that can create economic opportunity Centennial Challenges Execute the next round of ongoing Power Beaming and Strong Tether Challenges. Complete 6 Months Encourage partnerships that can create economic opportunity Centennial Challenges Work with the allied organization for the 2011 Green Flight Challenge. In Progress 6 Months Enable citizen participation in NASA's mission Centennial Challenges Arrange partnerships for new challenges, post rules for public comment, and re-open the opportunity for public suggestions for new prize challenges. In Progress 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Citizen Engagement Evaluate effectiveness of implementation of user-generated ideas, work to streamline idea-gathering process. Complete 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. CRFI Review our processes and policies on what is already routinely made available to the public via our Web site and what additional items could be made available through our Web site. Complete 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Data.gov Automate internal submission and review process for new datasets to Data.gov. In Progress 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Data.gov Assist in the creation of the Access and Utilization of NASA Science Data portal to access NASA's science data available for download In Progress 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Data.gov Convene a workshop with data stakeholders internal and external to NASA to discuss our data structure and processes for releasing data In Progress 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Declassification Provide a process where the public can provide input on what types of information should be prioritized for declassification. In Progress 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Declassification Continue to improve the Declassification process to better meet the needs of the public. Complete 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Education Increase the functionality of the Education WAR tool to support Agency transparency by determining portions of the report to be made available on NASA's public Web site, implementing appropriate links on the NASA's public Web site for WAR information, and providing selected portions of the WAR archive to Data.gov. In Progress 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Financial Data Transparency Complete proposed FY 2011 Annual Performance Plan. Complete 6 Months Institutionalize Open Government philosophies and practices at NASA Financial Data Transparency Utilize lessons-learned from NASA's implementation of the Recovery Act transparency elements in the development of the processes for Open.gov initiative. In Progress 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. FOIA Provide Web-based access to check the status of submitted requests through a FOIA tracking system. In Progress 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. NASA TV Upgrade NASA Television distribution system to high definition video quality in order to provide a better experience to viewers. Complete 6 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation Nebula Complete Nebula's IaaS 1.0. Complete 6 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation Nebula Release Nebula PaaS alpha by the end of calendar year 2010. Complete 6 Months Institutionalize Open Government philosophies and practices at NASA Nebula Release first package of open source contributions. Complete 6 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation Nebula Increase Nebula compute and storage capacity. Complete 6 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation NEN/NTRS Improve NEN collaborative technology with new portal software. Complete 6 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation NEN/NTRS Roll out five additional technical communities of practice in NEN. Complete 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. NEN/NTRS Make NTRS visible and accessible to the public via Google Scholar. In Progress 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. NEN/NTRS Enable NTRS to be full-text searchable to better locate information. Complete 6 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation OCIO Convene the First NASA IT Summit in August 2010 to convene approximately 600 of NASA's IT community as well as partners in the private sector. Complete 6 Months Enable citizen participation in NASA's mission OCIO Establish the "itfuturestate Web site as a "visioning one stop" for public and private participation in creation and comment on future visions for IT within NASA. It should contain drivers (e.g., policies, guidelines, process documents, project links), and game playing that allows for free exchange of ideas. Complete 6 Months Encourage partnerships that can create economic opportunity OCIO Begin a pilot project with a public-private-partnership within NASA to begin "future testing" (smaller devices accessing applications and data remotely to perform all mission functions). Complete 6 Months Encourage partnerships that can create economic opportunity Open Innovation Projects Execute additional challenges both internal to NASA and externally based on the results of the first pilot projects. Complete 6 Months Enable citizen participation in NASA's mission Open Source Establish opensource.nasa.gov Web site as a "one-stop shop" for NASA open source (e.g., policies, guidelines, process documents, project links), which will serve NASA developers, NASA software release authorities, and the public. In Progress 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Participatory Exploration Begin benchmarking other efforts on crowd sourcing, segmenting the market, and engaging the public. Complete 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Procurement Develop new content and modify existing content based on public feedback. Complete 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Procurement Implement any additional OMB instructions as the directive is further defined. Complete 6 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation Public Affairs - Web Transition to new support contract allowing greater use of computer resources for NASA.gov projects. Complete 6 Months Institutionalize Open Government philosophies and practices at NASA Public Affairs - Web Release a policy on Social Media at NASA, if appropriate. Complete 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Records Update NASA Records Management public website to direct the public to the NASA FOIA process for obtaining NASA records not publicly available. Complete 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Records Cooperate with NARA on any ERA pilot activity follow-up. Complete 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. ScAN Collaborate with United States Air Force to develop video about the many benefits of GPS to NASA and its missions. Complete 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Science Data Access Create a portal with access to all available science data from NASAScience Web site. In Progress 6 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Science Data Access Identify opportunities across science data archive groups for enhancing connections and collaborations, both inside and outside NASA. Complete 6 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation Space Act Redefine the NASA organization to have an Office of the Chief Technologist, which is planned for the beginning of FY 2011. This office will have greater and broader authority than predecessor organizations regarding technology development partnerships. Complete 6 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation Tech Transfer A new NASA organization, Office of the Chief Technologist, will come into existence at the beginning of FY 2011, and have greater and broader authority than predecessor organizations regarding technology development partnerships as well as transfer out of NASA sponsored technologies. Complete 6 Months Institutionalize Open Government philosophies and practices at NASA Tech Transfer Public auction format accessible by all NASA Field Centers under standardized process and terms. In Progress 3 Months Encourage partnerships that can create economic opportunity Centennial Challenges Announce several new challenge topics, solicit bids, and select allied organizations to manage those new competitions. Complete 3 Months Encourage partnerships that can create economic opportunity Centennial Challenges Continue to work with existing allied organizations for three on-going challenges. Complete 3 Months Enable citizen participation in NASA's mission Centennial Challenges Increase participation by increasing publicity for the events, reaching out to potential new competitor communities and seeking new government partnerships and new venues for the competitions. Complete 3 Months Enable citizen participation in NASA's mission Citizen Engagement Further review ideas and distribute to relevant offices throughout Agency for analysis and implementation. Complete 3 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation Citizen Engagement Deploy IdeaScale as Software as a Service for entire Agency, allowing multiple crowd-source discussions to take place on a variety of NASA-focused topics. Complete 3 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation Citizen Engagement Establish a How-To guide for offices to use citizen engagement for their programs. In Progress 3 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Citizen Engagement Establish framework and procedures for handing un-implementable ideas with a high number of votes, including ways to work with idea authors to make their submissions more realistic or tenable. In Progress 3 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation Citizen Engagement Participate in Inter-agency 'Ideation Community of Practice' working group. Complete 3 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Data.gov Release a Citizen Engagement Tool focused on soliciting ideas for NASA submissions for Data.gov. Complete 3 Months Institutionalize Open Government philosophies and practices at NASA Data.gov Clarify strategy and process for submission of new datasets to Data.gov for NASA employees. Complete 3 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Declassification Update the Office of Protective Services Web site, which includes information about our declassification programs and how to access declassified materials. In Progress 3 Months Institutionalize Open Government philosophies and practices at NASA Declassification Improve the workflow between all the participants that play a role in the successful administration of the Declassification Program Agency wide. Complete 3 Months Enable citizen participation in NASA's mission Education Fully establish online collaborative tools as part of future education events and activities with external stakeholders. Complete 3 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Financial Data Transparency Update the Recovery Act Program Plans to provide the public with the most current snapshot of NASA's activities to enact this initiative. Complete 3 Months Institutionalize Open Government philosophies and practices at NASA Financial Data Transparency Modify internal guidance and processes to account for recent and upcoming Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (RATB) requirements, as well as, lessons-learned regarding the recipient reporting data review process. Complete 3 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Financial Data Transparency Publish the FY 2010 Annual Performance Plan Update to reflect changes to commitments due to budget actions. Complete 3 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. FOIA Ensure Web site reading rooms are up to date by posting documents for which three or more requests have been made. In Progress 3 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. FOIA Decrease by 11 months the oldest backlog on file. Complete 3 Months Institutionalize Open Government philosophies and practices at NASA Nebula Complete plans to incorporate Nebula into NASA’s data center strategy or IT framework as determined by the OCIO. In Progress 3 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation Nebula Continue testing Nebula IaaS alpha performance by supporting at least forty internal NASA projects. Complete 3 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation Nebula Release Nebula IaaS beta. Complete 3 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation Nebula Have a Nebula PaaS prototype by July 2010. Complete 3 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation NEN/NTRS Increase outreach to NEN users. Complete 3 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation NEN/NTRS Enlist NEN champions for Office of the Chief Engineer site to ensure more information is made available on an ongoing basis. Complete 3 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation OCIO Establish the Chief Technology Officer for IT position. Complete 3 Months Improve internal NASA collaboration and innovation OCIO Establish the Chief Technology for IT Officer's Council. Complete 3 Months Encourage partnerships that can create economic opportunity Open Innovation Projects Identify second round of challenges for two of the pilot projects and lessons learned developed from the first round. Complete 3 Months Enable citizen participation in NASA's mission Open Source Obtain approval to use multiple public, open source development sites (e.g., SourceForge, GitHub) for hosting NASA open source software releases. Complete 3 Months Enable citizen participation in NASA's mission Open Source Establish tools to facilitate NASA open source release process (e.g., database of third-party libraries cleared for use by NASA software). In Progress 3 Months Institutionalize Open Government philosophies and practices at NASA Participatory Exploration Develop and obtain approval for the Internal Participatory Exploration Office Plan. Complete 3 Months Enable citizen participation in NASA's mission Procurement Monitor and measure feedback from the Open Government Plan on Office of Procurement and Open Government, Financial Data Transparency, and Data.gov sections. Complete 3 Months Enable citizen participation in NASA's mission Public Affairs - Web Deploy new Flash-based on-demand video player that enables the public to comment and discuss videos posted to the Web site. Complete 3 Months Enable citizen participation in NASA's mission Public Affairs - Web Increase opportunities for public to directly connect with NASA experts through channels such as NASA chats. In Progress 3 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. Records Complete electronic records schedules for records in the remaining 5 percent systems and submit to NARA for approval. In Progress 3 Months Institutionalize Open Government philosophies and practices at NASA Records Participate in NARA's ERA Pilot Phase 2. Complete 3 Months Institutionalize Open Government philosophies and practices at NASA Records Participate in NARA's Web 2.0 Study of agencies' use of social media technologies. Complete 3 Months Increase Agency transparency and accountability to external stakeholders. ScAN Participate in the Discovery Channel's program about the bearings replacement on the 70-meter "Mars antenna" at Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in Mojave Desert, CA. Complete 3 Months Institutionalize Open Government philosophies and practices at NASA Science Data Access Develop strategy and approach to interface more efficiently and effectively with the Federal Data.gov endeavor. Complete 3 Months Encourage partnerships that can create economic opportunity Space Act Transition toward significantly greater development and maturation of technologies through dual use technology development partnering and initiatives involving the emerging commercial space community. NASA expects to see an increase in the number of partnerships focused on the development of the commercial space sector. In Progress 3 Months Encourage partnerships that can create economic opportunity Tech Transfer Support and facilitate the emerging commercial space community by making it easier for NASA sponsored technologies to be found and commercially applied. Complete 3 Months Encourage partnerships that can create economic opportunity Tech Transfer Successful completion of first public auction involving multiple NASA Field Centers. Complete