“Workshops Without Walls” Integrating Technology, Organizations and People to Advance NASA Science

1. “Workshops Without Walls” Integrating Technology, Organizations and People to Advance NASA Science Estelle Dodson and Marco Boldt March 12, 2011

2. What are NASA Virtual Institutes? • Institutes that study important NASA questions: • NAI: What is the nature of life in the universe? • NLSI: What is the science of the moon? • NASA has formed these two institutions by virtually bringing together the best and brightest from around the world using technology.

3. Research Team Distribution Over 900 members… Distributed across more than 200 universities, labs, research centers and organizations throughout the country Competitive grants, every 5 years

4. It’s not just technology….. Problem solving Recommending Talking Evaluating Crossing Disciplines Coordinating Connecting Listening Facilitating Training Modeling Behavior Sharing Interacting Communicating Implementation Teaching Observing Leading Culture Change Organizing

5. Collaboration Technical Infrastructure Social Infrastructure Organizational Infrastructure

6. a balance of centralization and autonomy

7. In the beginning… “Why would you want to use this half baked technology to replace something that is working perfectly well?” –UweRossbach, Michigan State University

8. 11 years of… • Continuous improvement • Listening to our users • Reaching out to users • Observe, share and iterate • Simplify, simplify, simplify • Culture change through behavior change

9. Workshops Without Walls • The Organic Continuum from the Interstellar Medium to the Early Solar System • 180 registrants, 21 states, 16 countries, 33 science talks • Molecular Paleontology and Resurrection: Rewinding the Tape of Life • 552 registrants, 31 states, 30 countries, 29 science talks

10. Flash Forward: All-Access Science • Suddath Symposium: The Ribosome: Structure, Function and Evolution • April 1-2 @ Georgia Tech • 300 unique log-ins • Paleobiology During the Genomics Era • May 12-13 @ J. Craig Venter Institute • 159 unique log-ins

11. Rewinding the Tape of Life 31 States, 30 Countries

12. University of Hawaii Carnegie Institution of Washington ARC showing 6 videocon sites • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

13. Carnegie Institution of • Washington - Auditorium • Carnegie Institution of Washington • Informal mealtime discussions at break

14. Technical Philosophy • Use widely available COTS tools • Actively participate from anywhere, any device. • IOS, Android phones and tablets (or any device with an Adobe Flash player) • Laptop and Desktop Computers • HD (and SD) Videoconferencing Rooms • Near real-time posting of recordings • Focus should be on the meeting, not the technology!

15. Not less work, different work:

16. Roles • Science Organizers • Presenters • Bloggers • Technical Producer • Facilitators • Audience

17. Technical Requirements • Speakers should be able to present from their home institution without travel. • High Quality audio, and video (HD where possible) • Very little or no processing of slides required.

18. Core Technologies We Integrate • Adobe Connect Online Meeting Software • HD h.323 Videoconferencing (Endpoints and MCU) • Teleconferencing (POTS) • Livestream (for overflow)

19. HD Videoconferencing

20. User-Managed Videoconferences NAI’s Multi-point Control Unit (MCU) makes is possible to have up to 30 video connections at once in various configurations For example • 3 meetings linking 10 sites • 6 meetings linking 5 sites, etc Videoconferences can be managed through a web browser without assistance from NASA staff.

21. Adobe Connect No download for most users- uses browsers flash plugin. App version available for iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android. Customizable “pods”

23. Tips for a successful meeting • Reserve conference rooms early (if used) • Test technologies with all presenters sites • Screen sharing • Audio and microphones • Camera placement and zoom • What to expect • Collect presentations in advance and distribute to all presenting sites

24. Tips for a successful meeting (cont) • Have a backup plan! • Talk through backup/recovery plan with presenters and IT POC’s during test run so they know what to expect during a glitch. • Have backchannel communications • To communicate technical issues without interrupting conference. • Monitor and adjust audio • Actively engage remote participants!

25. Challenges and lessons learned • Time zones • Scheduling • Audio • Isolated technical issues vs. global • Value in keeping everything in one-window

26. 2nd WWW Post-Workshop Survey • What did you like most about the workshop? • people from diverse scientific backgrounds have gathered and shared their knowledge to tackle the same issue…The diversity of talks …broad range of views... the variety of viewpoints and directions…Easy, fast, efficient exchange of knowledge…No travel • What did you like least about the workshop? • Hard to replace in-person discussions…The lack of after-session mingling and discussions…Problems with the audio…Difficult to give talks without in-person situational awareness…needed more Q/A time Did you find opportunities for collaboration?Yes: 33.8% (23) Maybe: 22% (15)No: 32.4% (22)N/A: 11.8% (8) Was this workshop useful to you?Very useful: 67.0% (71)Somewhat useful: 29.2% (31)Less useful: 3.8% (4) Would you attend another Workshop Without Walls?Yes: 97.5% (116)No: 2.5% (3)

27. Feedback from Surveys …as a senior scientist, I normally can't spend the time at meetings or talks on topics in which I am interested. Once I get the hang of sitting in from my office on those talks, it will be incredible. As this becomes more and more common, I think the boost to science, and most other human endeavors, will be incalculable. I found things out in a few talks of which I was completely unaware. I give it an AAA+++ rating. Thank you for making this possible.

28. Education Outreach with Live-Science “I had to teach during most of the conference…I did wow my 7th graders with a couple of minutes of a live science conference for the fun of it” This is great! I'm not in the educational world, but as a passionate amateur, I'm really grateful that you've given me the opportunity to listen in on this. Even if I only understand a tenth of it, that's a bunch of learning I would never have had the opportunity to do! Thanks!

29. NAI Central letter Leading the Charge to Virtual Meetingswas published in the 11 February 2011 issue of Science • NAI letter was written in response to December 2010 letter Travel Trade-Offs for Scientists suggesting that scientists demonstrate new ways of doing business that don’t contribute so substantially to climate change • NAI letter key points • NAI successfully demonstrated a new paradigm with two NAI Workshops Without Walls in March and November 2010 • Surveys indicated that 98% of participants would attend another such workshop • Virtual meetings are just the beginning: emerging technologies are enabling virtual workspaces of the future

30. Workshop Without Walls: Broadening Access to Science Around the World • Look up citation PLoS Biology • Authors: Betul Arslan, Eric Boyd, Wendy Dolci, Marco Boldt, Estelle Dodson, Carl Pilcher • Provides an overview of the methodology for hosting virtual science workshops, the challenges, benefits and lessons learned.

31. Summary • Collaborative technologies are changing the way we work • Success depends on • Ease of use • Integration of multiple technologies • Understanding your community • Rapid response and iterative improvement • Planning, planning, planning

32. Questions, comments?Marco Boldt, marco.boldt@nasa.govEstelle Dodson, estelle.dodson@nasa.gov