In 2007, a small group of people began an intentional, collaborative experiment in open, transparent, and direct communication about your space program. Our goal was to enable your direct participation in exploring and contributing to NASA’s mission.

Many of us have since begun new adventures. This site will remain as an archive of the accomplishments of the openNASA experiment.

Virtual Participation for #SpaceApps 2013

By Ali Llewellyn, 13 April 2013
 Ali Llewellyn

Squares have been appearing on the world map for the past several months…  there are now so many that some are buried underneath others! Right now we know of 83 local events planned in 44 countries – connections on all 7 continents and in space.

But here’s the thing: what if you live somewhere where you can’t join a local event? Whether that’s Alaska, Russia, the bottom of the Atlantic or on the International Space Station, we are committed to engaging the participation of anyone and everyone who wants to be a part of addressing exploration challenges. Fortunately, with the aid of technology, that’s possible. Your city may not have an event this year – but you can “put it on the map” by volunteering your skills and perspectives!

So what do virtual participants need to know for Space Apps? 

Before the Event:

  • Check out challenge pages and figure out what you want to work on. You can ask questions and leave comments on the hackpads associated with each challenge. (There’s a blue button on the page to get to the hackpad.) Leave a note with your skills and how people can contact you.
  • Invite your friends and colleagues! While we would love to connect you with collaborators in other cities, you certainly can bring your own collaborators with you.
  • Connect up with the Virtual Coordinator, Wayne Burke! He’s ready to help match you with project teams and answer your questions.

During the Event:

  • The Virtual Location page will be your home base – Wayne will be keeping it up to date with contact information, news and whatever information you need to know.
  • Create a project page on spaceappschallenge.org and list your collaborators. This will be where you ultimately submit your work online.
  • Figure out with your team how you want to communicate and what tools will work for you.  The key to successful virtual participation is solid communication – and so we want to be sure that everyone is getting the information they need.
  • Stay connected with the global event from your location! Watch the intro video when it gets posted and stay tuned to the dashboard for timeline, Ustream updates, Twitter connections.

After the Event:

The International Space Apps Challenge is fundamentally about collaboration. It takes many nations working together to build the space station and keep a human presence in space – and it will take many nations working together to go further and explore beyond. Come be a part of helping to make that happen.

Sign up here to participate virtually in the International Space Apps Challenge – and we’ll “see” you next weekend!