The following information comes from the White House Open Government Innovations Gallery:

Spacebook

National Aeronautic and Space Administration

A Professional Network to Connect People for Innovation and Success

The Challenge

Space doesn’t explore itself. Science doesn’t discover itself. People do that, and to do that they have to talk. They have to trade questions and ideas. They have to connect. And the more diverse the group, the more likely connections and conversations will lead to new ideas and innovation. NASA communities need a way to connect, to share their information and resources, to collaborate, and ultimately to innovate and discover. NASA’s scientists, engineers, and technologists rely upon each other’s unique knowledge and expertise to pull off amazing discoveries in their study of our home planet and the Universe. To achieve mission success, NASA’s teams need to find information and answers from experts across multiple teams, organizations, or centers. Doing this can be a challenge.

The Solution

Spacebook is a professional network that lets NASA people and communities connect to each other in a new way. Spacebook is an enhanced Intranet designed around user profiles, forums, groups, and social tagging. Employees have their own pages where they can publish their own status, share files, connect with others, follow others’ activity, and join communities of interest. Spacebook provides simple and user-friendly functionality that can be easily and widely adopted by teams and individuals across NASA’s workforce, whether they’re down the hall, across the country, or around the globe.

Spacebook gives NASA employees and contractors the opportunity to network with their colleagues, encourages collaboration and information sharing, and energizes their community as they push the edge of the technological envelope. They can seek answers to profound scientific questions: Where did we come from? What is the future of Earth and the Universe? Are we alone?

The Benefit

By creating a culture of collaboration and encouraging teams to consider diverse viewpoints, Spacebook gives rise to new, innovative ideas. By improving communication, trust, teamwork, and access to information, Spacebook promises to minimize duplication of efforts. By facilitating the sharing of experience across teams, Spacebook can reduce project risks. By connecting colleagues to swap and reuse equipment, Spacebook saves money and environmental impact. Finally, Spacebook also helps NASA attract and retain the next generation of scientists and engineers, who expect to be able to use social media tools to support their work.

Additional Details

Spacebook was launched in June 2009 and now has over 850 users across NASA.

For more information, email spacebook-support@lists.nasa.gov