NASA Advisory Council: Lack of Transparency and Needless Delays

Editor's note: There has been a disappointing development in how the NASA Advisory Council posts things on its website. Although they were not the fastest organization at NASA (often taking months simply to post documents that were already completed), they did eventually manage to post the presentations.

Well, now it would seem, presentations made at these meetings (which are open to the public) can only be obtained by asking Paul Iademarco, the NAC Executive Director (see Feb 2008, Oct 2007 July 2007 etc.).

So much for openness at NASA.

Friday afternoon I asked Iademarco for a copy of a Gen Y perspectives presentation that was made at the NAC meeting yesterday. He told me by email "I will post the presentations when the minutes are completed. It usually takes about 3-4 weeks on average. However we always strive to get everything posted sooner."

Oh yes, have a look at the minutes that have to be prepared - October 2007 for example. This short document takes 3-4 weeks to prepare? Moreover, it has been 11 weeks since the 7 Feb meeting and the minutes/recommendations for that meeting are not even posted yet. Gee, why bother - its all stale by now.

Anyone attending this meeting could have gotten a hardcopy of the presentation or taken pictures of it on the screen. The Gen Y folks certainly have a valid point to make when they suggest that things could be done much more efficiently and effectively at NASA if only NASA personnel took the time to learn how to use the tools at hand - and if they truly wanted their part of the agency's activities to be responsive and transparent.

Ironically it seems that the very place where NASA gets this sort of advice is one of the places most in need of applying this advice.