Church of the Customer Blog
« Tangible effects of Napsterized knowledge | Main | We'd roll out the red carpet, but we can't find it »
January 27, 2004
Tangible effects of Napsterized knowledge
NASA is reaping the benefits of making its knowledge and intellectual capital widely available, as reported by the New York Times.
Since the rover Spirit landed on Mars three weeks ago, 32 million people have visited the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Web site, dwarfing the numbers of any other space event, including last year's space shuttle accident. The agency recorded four billion hits, one for each item called up on the site, as the visitors browsed through hundreds of pictures considering what rock to zoom in on. That was well over the number of hits recorded in the entire previous year.
Last weekend, tens of thousands of Mars fans went even further, gathering at planetariums, around television sets and in Internet chat rooms to monitor the scene inside the control room as the rover Opportunity landed.
The interest, experts say, is driven largely by the vast amount of information NASA is making available for the public. As a population acclimated to video games and cyberspace finds itself immersed in a not-so-virtual Martian reality, it is eagerly using familiar tools to explore the unknown.
Instead of merely admiring Mars, people are now interacting with it. And while the activity may be dominated by a core of self-avowed space geeks, they have been joined by novices — nurses, real estate brokers, students and teachers — drawn by the drama of the mission as well as the ease of access to it.
By making its intellectual capital easily and widely accessible, NASA is creating millions of evangelists for the Mars mission, which in turn will help the space agency's fund-raising efforts for future exploratory missions.
The more you give away your knowledge, the more valuable it becomes.
Other blogs that reference Tangible effects of Napsterized knowledge:
» Maybe there's hope for a new generation of scientists from Canuckflack
Some startling numbers from the NYT on the popular pick-up of information from NASA's Mars mission: Since the rover Spirit landed on Mars three weeks ago, 32 million people have visited the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Web site, dwar... [Read More]
» New Case Study: Nobel Systems Inc. from creating custom
creating custom GIS desktop applications, to update their GeoViewer application. [Read More]
First. Great book. Second. Excellent newsletter. Third. Excellent weblog.
Fourth. I've told my friends with passion and excitement. :-)
I am a huge space buff. Like my passion for Apple, I go out of my way to promote all things visionary with great passion. And I make every effort to inspire and educate younger people who need passionate role models -- mentors. I converted one young girl who hated marketing/advertising into a devout study-aholic. And she's a space cadet now -- in her mind. :-)
NASA has transformed itself into a marketing machine. And yes, NASA is providing content - really cool content. The online videos for Mars entry are excellent. I listen to younger cousins and their excitement for space. About how cute the little rovers are. About how space exploration is cool. In fact, the recent effort to save Hubble is an excellent example of 'like-minded' folks joining together to make NASA re-think its decision.
NASA is a marketing machine. Bravo.
