NASA SMD Annual Communication Meeting
San Francisco Marriott Union Square
Sunday, Dec 13, 2015
8:00 am – 16:00 pm
NASA HQ Education & Communications, Kristen Erickson
Definitions of communications: Web & social media, public engagement (including conference exhibits,
such as the AGU Booth with the Hyperwall)
Winnie is now also the Exhibits Manager for all SMD (she was doing it for Earth Science for many years).
She coordinates 50 different conferences for SMD.
Michelle Thaller is now at HQ with ½ of her time working on SMD communications and ½ of her time
with AA Grunsfeld on his communications.
Mamta Nagaraja is restructuring science.nasa.gov as there is now a new requirement from OMB that all
federal agencies’ websites be structured to work on mobile devices. It is expected that the release of the
site will be in late February, 2016. Mamta is working with SMD leads on this project.
D.J. works in planetary science. She will be in charge of guest operations, coordinating with the Office of
Education (Cindy Steele is in charge for guest ops in that office.), and the program executive.
In Office of Communication (Weaver) has organized the agency in 6 different internal campaigns to
create efficiencies. This has now been expanded to be an external approach. SMD has 3 of these
campaigns: ISS, Aero, Technology, Earth, Mars, Solar System and Beyond. SMD communications needs
to align with these themes. A lot of different resources: NASA TV, web & social media accounts…etc.
New communication policy (SPD 26) is now in effect. Kristen has received questions about this
document, wondering if all the work is given to HQ without any support to the mission teams. She
wanted to assure the community that there is no change from a staffing perspective. The
communications teams at HQ need the support of the mission teams to provide the content. This
document is meant to explicitly connect the missions to the themes without prescribing how that is
done.
Grunsfeld wants to stress the stories and the people behind the stories. Share the “ah ha” moments of
what the scientists felt when they came across a discovery, or share what was most intriguing about a
scientists’ journey.
NASA communications and NASA science are not representative of the future or the current workforce
that we are trying to engage with. Please be mindful of these audiences. Please find role models for
audiences that are not actively engaged in NASA in your communication efforts.
There are many tools at NASA that have been developed that are resources for communication staff.
Ten years of work has culminated in a document created by Dan Woodard in communications: a
document that lists the major events that the agency is planning in order for the communications staff
(within missions/at NASA) to align with and amplify. Five events span all six themes, called CLEE events.
It is expected that all of those doing NASA communications will be participating in CLEE. This document
of key NASA-related events will be and is a very important planning tool.
NASA receives approximately 5.1 Billion dollars from the tax payers with ~100 missions in operation at
any given time. This ongoing effort is an extraordinary accomplishment. The caliber of people
undertaking this effort is outstanding. Outside of SMD, it is hard to understand what goes on within
SMD and people are not aware of the professionals within the SMD side of the agency. This provides an
opportunity for SMD communications to share out not only the science, but the outstanding work,
brilliance, and journey of those who are making the science discoveries accessible.
Mark Allen is leaving NASA SMD this coming year. He has done an incredible job keeping NASA science
alive and well.
NASA HQ Earth Sciences Division, Mike Freilich
Mike Freilich was a professor at OSU. The Earth Science community is extremely grateful for the Earth
Right Now campaign. It illustrates the best of NASA communications. Here are his personal thoughts on
the main objective of Communications at NASA:
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Internal Research: identify the essential truths in what NASA does. How do we look at the
individual missions and people (minutia) and step back and look at it from a big picture and find
the core of what people are doing?
Take essential truths and communicate them to the broader society in ways that are both
informative and that stimulate thinking and creative approaches on the part of the listeners to
help engage, stimulate, and help them think about what has been discovered.
Earth Focus: Missions, advances knowledge of Earth as an integrated system, develop focused
information products that provide the information that the end users need to answer their questions to
provide direct societal benefit. We invest in technologies in Earth-focused technologies to enable future
missions in order not to do new technology when developing missions. The Earth Science Division
separates these two processes.
“Essential Truths”
1. Funding and top-level support for Earth Science at NASA (and in the Nation) is healthy in a budgetary
sense. There has been a huge amount of talk about a tax on the NASA Earth Science budget from other
agencies. These attacks have taken place, but so far these attacks have not been effective. In part this is
because of the communications efforts, professional societies, and the public. Appropriations at NASA:
1.77 Billion FY16 – largest division within SMD that directly serves the number of voters. FY16
Presidents’ budget requested 10% increase. House appropriations committee decreased FY16 request
by just a very little. Senate appropriated 99% of the Presidents’ request of FY16. We will be able to make
the same contributions as before in terms of investing in missions. Three missions launching in FY16.
Four missions launching in FY17. There will be eight more missions launching before 2023. There were 5
missions in 11 months this past year. We went from a launch per year to a couple of launches every
year.
2. The research program – expanding our understanding of the Earth system: turning hardware to real
knowledge and understanding. We know for certainty that sea level is growing per year. We know this
only because of the satellite measurements over the past 20 years. There is more volume of water in the
ocean. It can only be due to melting or heating. Satellites have told us how much is due to melting or
heating. We know that Earth is changing. Arctic Sea ice is decreasing in extent and in thickness. We
know the implications of this for controlling mechanism. There are global economic and national
security implications and opportunities of this science.
3. Earth Science Division turns these measurements and understanding into communication products
that are relevant to society. It is very important to demonstrate advancements and accomplishments of
turning measurements into tools useful to society. Applied science programs are doing this every year.
4. Our technology program is providing seamless transitions to allow our future missions to be on the
cutting edge of technology. It does take 10-12 years to develop a mission. The technology investments
are focused on supporting what technologies will be amenable and need to be expanded and developed
to enable future missions to make the measurements needed to further our understanding. Many want
the metrics on how many technology programs funded have led to new technologies that have
benefitted our knowledge. Maybe this is not the right ‘question.’ Maybe a better question is, “Which
missions flying today benefitted from the Earth Science technology program?” The answer to that
question is, “All of them.”
The planet is changing, we are on it.
Q&A
Q: Can you talk about the relevance of the exhibits to communications?
A: The NASA Hyperwall is being used throughout the country. The other tools are also incredibly
important. The Hyperwall will continue to be developed, but there are many other agencies or
conference experts who understand the power of communications from our NASA speakers…etc. To the
extent that we can provide an excellent product at a reasonable cost, we will continue our work in
exhibits. NASA has one exhibit event per week. Others are interested in duplicating the exhibit model
that NASA SMD has implemented, such as the Hyperwall. And so the product will not be as unique but
the content, ways of presenting…etc is still unique and innovative.
NASA HQ Planetary Science, Jim Green
Communications is about giving back to the public – what did the public get with their tax money?
Planetary has a blessing and curse: if you miss a launch window, it creates a whole host of budgetary
issues and then makes the program look less than it is. Curiosity has been a crowning jewel of Planetary.
The events that planetary has planned and those not planned… Dawn, Ceres, flyby of Pluto have been
amazing. Others – asteroid impacts and the movie ‘The Martian’ allowed us to talk about science fiction
compared with science fact. Bringing human exploration into the reality of what mars is really like?
Journey to Mars is one of the campaigns. The other campaign that Planetary is a part of is “Solar System
and Beyond.” It is challenging to be a part of both of these campaigns, much less one of them. Alice at
JPL supported Jim Green this past year. Jim is looking for another communications lead and also looking
for that position to be full-time. He needs help in place very quickly.
Senior Review in Planetary is coming up. They will be required to ask missions who will be their subject
matter experts that will be brought in both into the Education CAN efforts as well as working directly
with program directors and scientists on communications.
Weekly nuggets are also very important. Indeed a weekly nugget allows NASA to highlight efforts within
planetary each week to OMB and OSTP. OSTP then shares these often in President Briefings.
Budget 1.2B in 2012, then it took a hit in 2013. In FY16, the budget might increase again to 1.5 Billion.
With the Europa mission and Cassini, the public is enthusiastic about supporting planetary science. D.J.
and Janelle Turner have been very supportive. Planetary cut back on future missions in order to keep the
current planetary activities active (mortgaged the future.) Now they have many missions that they will
need to ensure success. Current orbiting missions are detecting avalanches on Mars. Insight will
determine what is causing these avalanches. It has a connection to the NASA human exploration efforts.
As we learn more about Mars as a place for human exploration, Planetary Science communications
makes Mars “real.” Current research is providing evidence that there may be an underground aquafer
on Mars. We now know there is a large buried glacier around 40 degrees latitude. Planetary Science
helps the agency with knowledge of Mars to determine how humans might explore Mars in person.
Five discovery missions are in Phase A. Planetary is looking to select 2 of the mission if budgets permit.
An AO will go out this next year for another mission possibility. Other countries are developing plans to
go to other planets and NASA collaborates with these other country’s space programs, such as the
Japanese mission around Venus. Scientists are now in residence at JAXA, as what has been done in
Heliophysics in the past with Hinode. Planetary Science wants to work with ESA on their future missions.
They have supported the Indian Mars Mission (MOM) getting into orbit around Mars. There may be
foreign missions on some NASA Planetary Science missions into the future.
Communication strategies need to fall in line with the abilities with web and social media and to use and
leverage those to the maximum extent. We need to work together to determine how big to make these
campaigns and key missions milestones. The New Horizons’ flyby of Pluto is an example of a scenario
that might have been missed out on but was a huge success. The high resolution images of the flyby
have received a lot of press and attention.
In terms of outreach, nine people at a time is OK from the perspective of Jim Green. In the afternoon
session, some of the upcoming events will be mapped out – what we are going to do and what we can
do. Jim Green is looking for someone to come and help him out with that.
Comparative Climatology is incredibly important within Planetary Science division. The Sun heats up, the
average temperature on Mars will change in such a way that it is expected that water will be released
into the atmosphere, creating a green-house affect, which then could melt the ice cap and create a
more Earth-like planet in a billion years. This could be relevant to the survival of our species.
Q&A:
Q: You mentioned working more with JAXA and ESA, will you be working more with the Indian Space
Agency?
A: Yes! We are taking a trip to ISRO next year to do a workshop with students and professionals who are
interested in becoming more knowledgeable of planetary science. Then there will be a meeting to plan
future missions together.
NASA HQ Heliophysics, Steven Clark
His background is engineering and robotic missions and human space flight division.
Peg Luce has experience in communications and outreach. Was the Deputy in Earth Science, but is now
the Deputy in Heliophysics. This is Steve Clark’s first AGU.
Heliophysics has the smallest budget at SMD. Heliophysics is fortunate to have a flat budget, at least, so
that the planning is a bit easier than the other divisions in that sense. Eighteen missions (32 spacecraft)
are “flying” and gathering data for excellent science. Heliophysics System Observatory is the fleet of
spacecraft that help us answer the science questions from our field. Senior Review finished and all
“flying” missions were recommended to continue being funded and the budget allows for that.
Five missions are under development. There is a set of experiments that will fly in the coming year. ICON
will fly October, 2017 on a Pegasus to understand better where Earth’s atmosphere and the space
environment interact above the tropics. Gold will look at the Earth’s limb. Gold and ICON teams have
started to talk about how to work together and collaborate on the ionosphere science. 2018 in July –
Solar Probe Plus will launch in order to fly as close to the Sun as we have ever flown. It is working to
understand why the corona is hotter than the surface of the Sun. In Oct 2018, the Solar Orbiter
collaborative satellite with ESA will launch.
What is beyond those launches? The decadal survey recommended increasing the number of missions.
Once Solar Probes and Solar Orbital missions launch, that will free up some budget. Explorers AO will
come out next year. Explorers have been every 3.5 years but we are working to shorten that time to 2
years. STP5 – what kind of science questions will that one answer? In 2018-2019 there could be a LWS
AO.
The low budget in the Heliophysics Division makes it challenging to keep the smaller grants and the
young graduate students engaged in Heliophysics. This is where the communications teams are so
important – to keep the public engaged in Heliophysics. Human Space Flight Center communications
were relatively easy and the public equated the shuttle program with NASA. When that program shut
down, people thought that all of NASA had shut down. “The Sun is there – we look at it every day, so
what is the big deal with needing new knowledge?” There is a lot of education needed about the Sun: it
is a dynamic star that changes and we do not fully understand it: it affects us on Earth, causes the aurora
borealis, and affects our technology reliance that can go down during solar storms…etc.
Heliophysics is working hard to increase award amounts to research community, to continue the
sounding rocket program, to increase the support to cubesats (more missions, more low-cost missions)
to have a future for new graduate students and post-docs in the field, to have funding for innovative and
important new satellite missions…etc. Heliophysics has the budget for all SMD cubesats.
Launches and information are now on the website! Community is glad about that.
There is now a Nationwide Space Strategy – if there is a severe space weather event. What if such a
storm hit and knocks out our power grids, GPS systems…etc. OSTP rolled out a plan that requires a need
to predict space weather and understand how it could affect society. NASA-NSF-NOAA will be working
together on this plan. This plan is out for the public to see now.
SMD has been taking center stage since the Shuttle retired. The focus is back on science within the
agency and with the public. We need to build on this and, in concert with human space flight missions,
to continue this and increase the science communications. Heliophysics is important to human space
flight missions because of space weather. We need to determine how and when these solar storms are
going to affect crews in space journeying to other solar system bodies.
Learning the tools and products that are developed in communications are outstanding. Steve is
incredibly grateful for all that has been done so far with Heliophysics communications. Peg will be the
one primarily involved in outreach, but Steve will also be a part of the communications efforts. The
eclipse of 2017 will be a very important communications campaign for the whole agency.
Heliophysics has been collaborating with other countries on missions (JAXA and ESA) for many, many
years. This are will also grow with other international partners, such as India. The low-cost access to
space budget is in Heliophysics.
Q&A:
Q: Who will review the communications plan? How will it be reviewed? It is a requirement. There still
needs to be a budget for communications at the mission’s level. Who will ensure that there is? Will 1%
rule be applied for communications, which includes outreach?
A: now missions can allot MORE than 1% or less – it depends on the collaboration proposed between
the mission, the NASA center(s) involved, the people at NASA HQ involved…etc. This will be a missionby-mission determined effort. The 1% rule will not be reinstated in any near future.
FY16 Conference Calendar, Winnie Humberson & Kristen Erickson
Winnie: Introductions of team. Now there is a one cross-SMD exhibit and planning team for national
events and outreach efforts, which also work with other countries and interagency. For example, they
share information on and the physical exhibit of the Hyperwall.
CLEE event idea is new. The first one is the Science & Engineering Festival. CLEE is agency-wide. It will
focus on all the 6 campaigns. It is important to think about how each person’s mission or science fits into
particular campaigns. Someone is working to see how technology can help.
Working with AGU – NASA is a huge supporter of AGU and AGU does great communications for NASA.
Then there is an event with Librarians that will be the interagency effort.
SVS and Hyperwall capability, Steve Graham
How to Assemble a Playlist for a Hyperwall Presentation/Poster displayed. In addition to the Goddard
SVS visualizations, there are now 631 4K visuals that are appropriate for the Hyperwall. It is best for
many reasons to use existing visualizations. One reason is that it will look best to use visualizations with
high enough resolution to cover the wall. Often it is possible to make other visualizations appropriate to
the Hyperwall. If you want that done 10 minutes ahead of time, the answer is, “No!” But if you ask
ahead enough in advance, then yes it is usually possible. There are 43 Hyperwall talks. Additional 7
minute quick talks “Flash Talks” also taking place using the Hyperwall. Hyperwall-mode = 4K, Matrixmode = 1920-1080 (regular PPT or Keynote talk) also allowed but the resolution will be low.
Multimedia Tools, Kevin Hussey
Kevin is “Head of the Eyes Guys” – Eyes on the … (e.g. Solar System) team is referred to Kristen Erickson
as the “Eyes Guys.” On the Mall at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum – Planetarium Pavilion is
showing “Eyes on the Solar System” and “Eyes on Exoplanets“ and “Eyes on the Earth” kiosk, called
‘Earth from Space’ is in another part of museum. At AGU, “Eyes” products are at the booth behind the
Hyperwall. Eyes.nasa.gov – did a demo of the products from this website (Curiosity moving on Mars).
“Basically these are games that you need to download.”
Social Media
On 13 platform, 510 accounts (including mission platforms). Reach 89 million different people when you
wrap up all these accounts. Social media evolves rapidly. There is a huge emphasis in the past 9 months
on video. New produced pieces – Facebook is now larger driver of video (shift away from Youtube).
Twitter native video player can only be 10 minutes or less. Facebook – is limited in size, that translates
to approximately 20 minutes. Everything that has been discovered, it has been discovered by A PERSON
– even the robotic missions are built by people and analyzed by people. Social media allows these
people to engage directly with the public. New tools are now allowing scientists to answer many of the
questions coming in from the public about NASAs science. Facebook Q&As reach the public in numbers
in the millions. NASA is breaking into new audiences now as well by partnering with new audiences.
They are also looking at evaluating new platforms. In the 13-24 aged groups are moving to new
platforms. NASA has a rapidly growing audience in the 45-50 year olds. Snapchat is coming up for this
younger generation. All the images are vertical. This is different from the horizontal video content
production. NASA is working to figure out how to accommodate that. What happens after something
expires after 24 hour – how do we get this information out very quickly? Pinterest has a large female
demographic that does not follow NASA. NASA followers are currently about 60% male.
NASA is also making their current accounts are robust. Looking at all the accounts and seeing where
some accounts can be consolidated. It is not individual stories, but a collective story of a system.
Working to build up content to tell a coordinated story for Earth Science. Once we see how this works,
then NASA can look at how do we tell a coordinated story for the other campaigns through social media.
Also, looking at how social media and traditional media can interconnect and how to better tell stories.
At some layers, having NASA now writing and creating the stories for traditional media as they no longer
fund science writers.
Hashtags and shareables are being used, but more as branding elements rather than giving the content
flare. It is more effective to use a hashtag to tell a particular story rather than branding a big theme. Not
every engagement needs a shareable. The need to produce shareables has diminished. Leveraging what
is being done by missions or others and direct people to those. Sometimes an amusing image from a
spacecraft doesn’t need to be branded – sometimes it speaks for itself.
Recently launched on Tumblr. Now NASA can step outside the regular NASA voice and have more fun
with it. People on Tumblr love animated gifs, for example. For Venus, we put up “Five things you
probably didn’t know about Venus.” 1. Venus is Gasey! – made it more ‘fun’.
Another thing on the NASA social front is the team is working to bring in audiences onto the front-line of
the work at NASA. They are now reaching out to new audiences. For example for New Horizons, NASA
did a social events in Tucson where Pluto was discovered. They brought in new followers from the
southwest area, an area that is not near a NASA center.
Q&A:
Q: Idea of shareables – investment might be best used elsewhere. What is effective right now?
A: video from 30 sec to 1 minute is the most effective. Facebook algorithm allows for video to be
weighted in a particular way that will pull other common videos. Looking at things with a longer shelflife than just the event and done very quickly. Also, not everyone turns on the sound. So he would
recommend creating quick videos without sound, as this seems to work very, very well.
Q: What other local areas are you doing socials if not at the NASA Centers?
A: Jason 3 launch out of Vandenberg. We will be working to reach audiences in LA and SF Bay Area to
get people down for that launch.
Q: What advice do you have in terms of keywords and acronyms?
A: I always advocate for taking acronyms out. The challenge is fitting it in – if you can take what you are
talking about that becomes comprehensible to the public that includes some basic science at the high
school. The other important thing to try and do is to keep young kids and elderly people in mind. For
example, the word “Heliophysics” has no meaning to the public. It is really important to use words that
make sense to all people, for example the science of the sun and its effects on Earth.
Q: We did Pluto in a minute and Mars in a minute that were very event driven. Once you go through
that, are they still available and still used, or is there a shelf-life associated with them?
A: The Martian minutes were trying to have long shelf-life. The problem with marketing the 1-minute
video around an event is that it does not allow for a long shelf-life. Talking about the discoveries on
pluto can create something that will give a longer shelf-life for the video. There is a way to make things
more evergreen. Some was produced for long shelf-life and some for the moment of pass-by.
Q: I am working to get across what Heliophysics does and what it is. Alex Young and I have started to
talk about how to do that. But it would be great to hear from you too.
A: Actually, you have done a good job putting your account into “SunEarth” and breaking down the
boxes internally into a bigger story. And you were the first to do this – congratulations on doing that
first.
Q: What is getting the most reach in terms of the type of content?
A: The thing that is getting the most traction in video is visually compelling. This is key for anything that
we put out. Think about scrolling through a feed and the first five seconds is a NASA meatball and words
will not work. It is crucial to have visually beautiful graphics in the first five seconds and then put the
story after that. Nothing tells the story of the Mars’ water than the visuals of the Martian water itself. It
is important to highlight our people, but the visuals need to come first and be strong.
Q: I take a lot of pride that is part of a communication group that is so nimble and leads the way in the
federal government. Even so, it has been a challenge to use animated gifs and videos to hook people to
learn more. I am hoping that the 2 minute video takes people to a longer article. But as we go shorter
and shorter, I think it is also important to figure out how to get people to watch more or longer content.
A: Going back to one of the examples mentioned earlier, the shareability of related content on social
media sites is crucial. So titles are key in this way. It is most effective to keep titles short and engaging
“Pits on Pluto” rather than a long title trying to explain the 1 minute video. There are algorithms taking
our content and connecting it with other content that the social media platform thinks is related. We
need to make sure that our other content connects with that. Podcast and Vodcasts are coming back –
reinvigorating storytelling one nugget at time – in a series of pieces. This helps to ensure the longevity of
our content and story. People are simply not clicking on links as much as they used to on social media.
Whatever we do not need the public to understand, we need to remove from our story. Only essential
components should be kept. From a public perspective, the institutional pieces are not as important and
may cut down on views. Then the public can focus on the key details that we are trying to get across.
Kristen: each mission team needs to connect with their NASA center social media lead. This is very
important. We will be meeting again next year and it will be interesting to see what your advice to us
will be.
Campaign overview, Patrick Lynch, Michelle Thaller, Janelle Turner
Since 2008, a lot has changed at NASA and on the NASA Portal in terms of telling the story of NASA. As a
key person involved in the Earth Right Now Campaign, moving the focus to science on the portal and
with the public as well as the astronauts has been hugely successful. One of the main benefits and
important aspects of the Campaigns is to bring people together to plan across missions, division, and
sometimes even directorates (large but nimble & flexible Campaign teams are important). The Earth
Campaign was the first of the Campaigns.
Michelle: has supported (unfunded) the Solar System and Beyond Campaign on her spare time
(unfunded effort). How to talk about the Mercury Messenger mission and the astrophysics of black holes
in the same Campaign is very difficult. Here comes another layer of oversite! But how can this be useful
to get mission and other NASA science success out to the public? We will talk about this.
The events can be amplified using our SMD community. You do not have to support it, but we are
asking, “Is there a way to support this event and Campaign?” The next level 1 event is the arrival of Juno
at Jupiter. Even if you think there is no connection of your mission or your science to this arrival, what
can you do to help amplify or promote the communications from this event? Even a shout-out for this
event to your audiences would be useful. This worked really well for pluto. Hubble had discovered all
the moons of Pluto. And we also talked about space weather at Pluto. And Sophia was taking images at
the same time. For example, Juno will observe the aurora. So you can connect to the aurora on Earth
and other planets. Make connections through measurements, through scientific practices, through
physics. Auroras are related to magnetospheres. Jupiter’s magnetic field was used to discover oceans on
Jupiter’s moon. Magnetospheres were also the initial models for pulsars (astro).
Research after research, survey after survey shows that the public did not understand and do not
remember the names of our missions. It is hard culturally for our program managers and program
scientists to stop using our mission names. How interested are you in actually communicating with the
public? There is a need for scientists to be complete, accurate and tell the whole story. But we are also
in need of changing how we communicate to connect with our current population’s way of ingesting
information.
Kristen:
Three years ago, in order to better coordinate the work that is being done and effectively communicate
internally to NASA, the idea of Campaigns was developed. First it was attempted to come up with four
Campaigns. That was not possible, so six Campaigns were designed. After the Earth Right Now
Campaign, the internal structure ‘went external.’ In terms of the Mars Campaign, 3 years ago, Mars had
no budget and crossed three divisions. Best way to communicate/organize is to keep it as simple as
possible. The tagline challenge was making a tagline with only three words. Three people worked on the
tagline, starting with a color palette and the emotional response of that color palette. This could be used
in our communication efforts – to be as simple as possible (three words) and use emotional connections
such as color in your strategic planning. We did not want to ‘peak too early.’ For Mars, they took a
longer view. Also, wanted to make sure that they were accurate, so JPL’s Mars team were involved as
well as other centers and from HQ.
What has happened since is that a lot of materials from these Campaigns are on an internal website.
Office of Communications is now putting this information on an external website so that those without
NASA access will have access to all the products. Everything will be available to use – templates,
shareables…etc.
Q&A
Q: When do you think the templates and plan will be rolled out?
A: Some of these have been put out via the Earth Right Now Campaign. The video for autoplay – sound
off, 1 minute…etc. Font can be done and ready to use. These are available internally already and look
good. About half of the people will be using their phones. Need to test them on the phones. These
should be available soon – by March.
Q: When do we start having cross-Campaign meetings?
A: These meetings started a month or two and will continue, to start to understand how people in one
campaign can also support the other campaigns. The videos without sound: “How many of you have
turned on the sound in the cat videos on the internet?” Also, there is a “Exploding Cat Game” that used
Kickstarter to raise $50,000 and raised $9 million instead. Michelle met with the developer of this
game/kickstarter campaign to find out how he did this type of campaign to get this outcome.
Q: And how do we get the information back out to the missions about these campaigns?
A: We really do not want these campaigns to force you to do something. Rather, we want these
campaigns to help you in your communications. We have been working hard to communicate about
these campaigns to scientists and project managers.
There was some information about where to find out more about best practices in communications.