Emma Antunes shows the benefits of Social Networking for Project Managers.

1. How Social Networking Can Enable
Mission Success: An Overview of Web 2.0
for Project Managers
Emma Antunes
February 24, 2009

2. Agenda
• What are social media?
• How do social media relate to mission
success?
• Collaboration Tools at NASA
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3. Why Projects Fail
• Poor Communications
• Fear to Tell the Truth Upward
• Expertise
• Cost / Schedule Constraints
• Ineffective Processes
• Insufficient Risk Mitigation
• Insufficient Training
• Lack of Experience
• Design Errors
• Inefficient / Toxic Working Environment
• Ineffective Leadership
Credit: NASA Academy of Program and Project Leadership 3

4. Social Networks
• Social Networks aren’t new
• People rely heavily on other people to find information &
learn how to do their work
• Networks:
– Expand our knowledge and increase our circle of influence
– Are personal relationships that help keep us informed,
develop opinions, make decisions, and accomplish work
goals.
– Provide an “enduring infrastructure” for knowledge,
learning, and innovation
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5. Terms: What are we talking about?
• Social Computing
• Social Software
• Social Technology
• Social Networking
• Social Media
• Web 2.0
• Enterprise 2.0
• Government 2.0
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6. Web 2.0 Definitions
• Social = people
• Driven by user‐created content
• Tools for people to:
– Network, Collaborate, Organize & Publish online
• Tools that facilitate:
– Communication
– Engagement
– Transparency
– Trust
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7. Examples
• Social Publishing & Collaboration
– Blogs, Wikis
– Broadcast your knowledge
• Social Tagging
– Shared bookmarks
– Find/share knowledge
• Social Networking
– Friend of a friend networks
– Find people with knowledge
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8. Building blocks of Web 2.0
• Applications:
– Blogs
– Wikis
– Tagging
– Networking
• Technologies
– RSS
– Web Services
– AJAX
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9. Characteristics
• Intersection between the invisible (what’s on my
computer) and the inflexible (like SAP)
• Small, adaptable, modular, connectable
• Never “perfect”– in perpetual beta
• Patterns, processes, affinities, skills, interests and
social orders emerge and evolve
• Technologies:
– RSS, AJAX, Web Services
• Quintessential Example:
– Mashups connect data from one source with visualization
from another
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10. Blogs
• Web Log = “Blog”
– Web diary
– Personal tone/POV, timely, has an opinion
• Web site w/ articles by one author or group
– Usually around a topic or a personality
– Entries displayed in chronological order
• Comments & discussion follow articles
– Comments may be moderated or not
• Good for:
– Time based information
– News & status updates
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11. Blog Example
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12. Team Blog Example
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13. Wikis
• Wiki = Hawaiian for “fast” or “quick”
• Web site where contributors can edit directly
– Anyone (with edit rights) can modify the site (with tracking)
– Web based editing using simplified markup
– Version control provided
• Good for:
– Topics where group members all have different pieces of information
– Specific document collaboration
• Models:
– Current working version (comments on discussion page)
– Embedded comments in text
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14. Wiki Example
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15. Wiki Example
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16. Tagging
• Tags – keywords
– User defined (Folksonomy) as opposed to formal,
controlled vocabulary
• Aids search and information discovery
• Typical use:
– Social bookmarking
– Photo sharing
• Good for:
– Bringing order to the chaos of information overload
– Information sharing between geographically diverse
participants
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17. 17

18. Social Networking
• Networks for people to communicate and
share information
• Uses
– Discovery of likeminded people
– Maintaining/developing relationships
– Strengthening weak ties
– Broadcasting questions/news to your network
– Energizing your network
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19. Social Networking
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20. RSS
• RSS =
– Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)
– RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)
– Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
• XML formatted news feed that contains:
– Headline
– Summary
– Link to full content
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21. RSS Example
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22. Other building blocks
• AJAX
– Javascript
– Enables Rich Internet Applications
– Allows applications to update just a piece of a
page instead of the whole thing
• Web Services
– API for web applications
– Allows other applications to call functions within
your application
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23. Mashup Example
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24. How does social media
relate to mission success?
Social media is a tool for building
teams and strengthening networks.
For free.

25. It All Starts With Trust
• Knowledge sharing requires trust
– Most useful knowledge comes from trusted weak ties
• 2 types of trust:
– Benevolence based
• Based on what others have experienced of your behavior and
conduct
– Competence based
• Based on what others believe you know
• As trust increases:
– Coordination –> Cooperation –> Collaboration
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26. Benefits of Social Media
• Takes advantage of the information & resources we
already have
– Harnesses collective intelligence
– How many times do we pay consultants to tell us what we
already know?
• Encourages collaboration & information sharing
– Strengthens weak ties
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27. Why Projects Fail
• Poor Communications
• Fear to Tell the Truth Upward
• Expertise
• Cost / Schedule Constraints
• Ineffective Processes
• Insufficient Risk Mitigation
• Insufficient Training
• Lack of Experience
• Design Errors
• Inefficient / Toxic Working Environment
• Ineffective Leadership
Credit: NASA Academy of Program and Project Leadership 27

28. How do I get started?
• Inreach:
– Team Blogs & Wikis
– Social Networking among team members
• Twitter, facebook
– Make application API’s available
• Outreach:
– RSS!
– Twitter, Facebook, web sites
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29. NASA resources
• Agency Resources
– https://Inwiki.nasa.gov
• Internal wikis & blogs (part of InsideNASA)
– https://tagconnect.nasa.gov
• Social tagging (being piloted by GSFC)
– Other collaboration tools:
• NASA Engineering network, ICE portal, PBMA, VSDE,
Sharepoint, eRoom
– Coming soon – NASA Spacebook
• Social network being developed by GSFC
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30. Need More Help?
• Centers may have additional resources available
• Contact your Center Web Manager for more
information:
– ARC Megan Eskey – JSC Marcus Friske
– DFRC Marty Curry – KSC Patrick O'Rourke
– GRC Herb Schilling – LaRC Kay Costulis
– GSFC Emma Antunes – MSFC Rick Serwecki
– HQ Bryan McCall – SSC David Walters
– IVV Joshua Stonestreet – WFF Angela Walker
– JPL Don Cheney
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31. Questions?
Emma Antunes
GSFC Web Manager
Emma.Antunes@nasa.gov
(301) 286‐1377