Digitally Collaborating with Multi-center TeamsRodney GrubbsNASA DTV Program Manager

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO502

Work Together

Collaborate—Verb

To work with another or others on a join project

Latin words “together” & “labor”

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO503

Context for this discussion

On-line digi-collaboration for multi-center teams, projects and working groups

Internal NASA collaboration

Solving problems and getting real work done

Dialogue, knowledge capture and sharing

An adhoc interactive collaboration networkLike being able to have those sidebar discussions that are so fruitful at meetings, but on your own time, and you can choose when to engage or when to just drop in and listen

Not discussing public social media like Twitter, Facebook, Google +, Linkedin and so on

Not discussing instant messaging, desktop video teleconferencing, desktop sharing, or using Google Voice or Skype to make a phone call

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO504

Typical Multi-center Team

Includes civil servants and contractors & may include members from “non-center” centers like STScI

Team’s power and usefulness comes from frequent information sharing and asking for help

Some content can be very esoteric to small sub-sets of the larger group

Everyone has other “day jobs” and need flexibility to engage with the team

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO505

Key Collaboration Toolsets

Shared documents

Blogs & Comments

Announcements

Calendar

Discussions

Real-time notifications

Links

Images

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO506

Core Functional Features

Team members won’t go to multiple web sites to keep up with activities & discussions

One site to to rule them all, One site to find them, One site to bring them all and in that site to bind them!

Log-in needs to be simple—Utilize the same username/password system they have to use for other applications

Site navigation needs to be simple and obviousDon’t make the site look like your org chart!

Need to be able to log into the site from outside the NASA network

Needs to work on a variety of browsers, mobile devices, PC & Mac

Need notifications and RSS capability so team members can keep up with and engage in on-going conversations

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO507

Why email doesn’t workConversation threads become impossible to follow

Difficult to capture the content for later use

Can be impossible to make sure everyone participates!

Attachments can get dropped and version management compromised

Example:Email goes out to a mail list

Fred on the mail “list replies all” to original note but adds Susan

John on the mail list “replies all” to original note and adds Sally

Susan and Sally “reply all” but neither sees the other’s response!

And so it goes…..

Meanwhile there’s a good chance a bunch of other people don’t care and get tired of having all these emails back and forth

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO508

Aren’t there a lot of collaboration tools

available?Public collaboration tools are just that—public!

Not the place for discussing possible policy development or other topics that would get in the way of competitive procurements

Confuses the public

Rabbit holes

Too many tools & web sites mean communication clutter

Yammer for instant “Twitter” types of communication

NASA Spacebook for “Facebook” types of communication

Wikis for document sharing

Blog sites for blogs & comments

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO509

Does anything NASA has available work?

SharepointWhich version?

Multiple implementations across the Agency

NASA SpaceBook

eTouch/Portal Wiki

NASA YammerGood Twitter/Discussion tool but not much else….

MSFC ExploreNetGreat tool but limited to MSFC

Google SpacesPilot

ICE

NX, NASA Forward, Alfresco, Git, Windchill and who knows what else!?!

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO5010

Ideal Digi-Collaboration

An adhoc interactive collaborative network where members can find:

Announcements & Calendar

Documents

Blogs and/or discussions

Links

Images and videos

Single Sign-on

Notifications and/or RSS

Search Engine

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO5011

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO5012

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO5013

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO5014

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO5015

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO5016

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO5017

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO5018

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO5019

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO5020

Rodney Grubbs MSFC EO5021

If I were KingOne ID management system for all centers, JPL and the institutes

One team collaboration tool available Agency-wideAvailable off the NASA network

Core functionalitiesAnnouncements

Calendar

Blog/Discussion boards

Links

Wiki/Document sharing

Image viewer

Search Engine

Useful push notifications

Augment collaboration tool with Yammer, instant messaging, desktop sharing (webex) and desktop teleconferencing

Maybe we could start by updating NASA STD 2819, “Collaborative Tools Standards”