NeuroGovernment

Yesterday, I wrote about NASA’s new budget and how this new direction has the potential to greatly revitalize the US economy.  A fascinating project that has major potential for IT is NASA’s cloud computing platform – Nebula.  In this video, NASA’s CIO describes Nebula.

Talk to anyone who knows me and they will tell you I am a fanatical space exploration advocate.  One of my earliest memories was watching an Apollo mission and, at one time, I could list every space mission by both the US and USSR.  So, when a friend emailed me about the “sad news” of President Obama’s NASA budget, I surprised him with my enthusiasm for this great decision.

After Apollo, NASA lost its way.  By this time, humans should have been on Mars several times and there should be a thriving lunar colony.  Heavy manufacturing should be in orbiting factories and we should be receiving our power from large solar arrays beaming power back to Earth.  What we ended up with was a Space Shuttle program that essentially limited us to low Earth orbit (LEO) and the money pit called the International Space Station.  The last “Grand Vision” is essentially a repeat of the Apollo program down to the same spacecraft designs.

By canceling the Constellation and Ares programs that were way behind schedule and had massive cost overruns, NASA was freed of the old-style model of procuring hardware and more importantly, providing launches to LEO.  Reaching LEO is a proven technology and it is time to turn this part over to the commercial sector so that it can be done more effectively and efficiently.  NASA has opened up the opportunities for building a private space sector and this will be the start of an economic boon that could eclipse even the impact of the Internet.

NASA will now be free to focus back on exploration.  The new budget is bigger than past NASA budgets and focuses on continuing the unmanned missions that have been amazing successes in the last forty years.  And the new budget contains projects that will build the infrastructure for manned exploration in the future (orbital fuel depots, automated docking systems, closed-cycle life support systems, etc.).

It is also encouraging to see that the future of space exploration is spreading beyond one government agency.  For example, an open-source approach to building a lunar base.  Spreading the dream around will help to make it more real.

I chose the Nook over the Kindle.  And I am finding the Barnes and Noble prices competitive with Amazon.  Plus, when I buy an ebook from B&N, I actually can keep the ebook.  I’ve been an Amazon customer since 1997 but I have had enough of their censorious behaviors.

Can’t multitask.  Can’t run Flash.  No webcam.  Limited to only apps in the Apple App Store.  Seriously?

Waiting for the DroidPad which will blow the iPad away.

As I go through the various pieces of direct mail from various IT, training, and management gurus, I am reminded of this line from Monty Python’s Life of Brian:

“Brian: I am NOT the Messiah!
Arthur: I say you are Lord, and I should know. I’ve followed a few.”

I’ve always liked Roger Schank since I read his Tell Me a Story back in 1991.  In fact, he’s the impetus for my interest in mental models.  His insights in teaching and learning are well-grounded in his experiences in teaching college classes and his consulting work to many large companies.  That’s why his latest opinion on being realistic about the effects of technology on learning.  “Learning is learning and technology is technology. The two are related if and only if the technology makes it possible to learn something that can be learned in no other way.”

Amazing video!  Now, speaking as a public administration and public policy scholar, I am fascinated to see how this will change government in the next decade.

Watching the Olberman/Maddow wailing over Obama’s spending freeze proposal.  I am especially enjoying the Republican glee over their supposed victory on this front.  The Republicans do not see the trap that has been set for them in the midterms.

From Go strategy – “Reduction: Placing a stone far enough into the opponent’s area of influence to reduce the amount of territory he/she will eventually get, but not so far in that it can be cut off from friendly stones outside.”

The midterms will be a major setback for the Republicans.

Stowe Boyd promises three reasons why social networks are killing search but only delivers one.  But it is a big reason – lack of innovation in search technology.  I think that the increasing adoption of the semantic web will spur a new wave of innovation in search.  Maybe a merger of search and social media?

Fun post from Future 2.0 on how to be an expert without really knowing anything.   A better read is the think piece on how to think about the future.