Google's Schmidt to NASA: Be more 'open'
WASHINGTON--Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt on Thursday suggested NASA could learn a few things from his company.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt was the keynote speaker at a Washington luncheon commemorating NASA's 50th anniversary.
(Credit: Anne Broache/CNET News.com)Speaking at a luncheon series to commemorate the agency's 50th anniversary this year, Schmidt urged the space agency to take after what Google attempts to accomplish with its products: Build open, collaborative systems, not closed ones--a reference to NASA's legacy of creating mission-specific vehicles. Create simple platforms upon which others can build. And while you're at it, why not let spacecraft talk to each other?
"Isn't it obvious that spacecraft should have Internet on them, too?" Schmidt asked an audience of about 100 NASA officials, contractors, and Capitol Hill staffers, with the U.S. Capitol building barely visible in the snowy scene through the floor-to-ceiling glass panes behind him.
OK, maybe not an "open" Internet, he conceded: We wouldn't want people hacking spacecraft and remotely flying them off course, would we?
The feel-good speech, which lasted about 40 minutes, wasn't only about tooting his company's own horn. The Google chief, who described himself as a "strong supporter of NASA," devoted a good chunk of his time to a presentation on flat-panel screens describing how his company relies on the agency for its products--allowing, say, users of Google Earth to zoom in on Neil Armstrong's footprint on the moon and view far-out star fields.
Schmidt acknowledged that it may not be possible for NASA to replicate the professed Google mission statement. After all, it constantly has to grapple with limited time windows for takeoffs and the like. And that interplanetary Internet, capable of stretching "way out there," as Schmidt put it? The study team trying to make it happen is facing its own set of challenges (spinning in space doesn't help latency, it seems). But they shouldn't lose hope, Schmidt said.
"In many ways Google and NASA are similar," Schmidt declared, "in that they're based in optimism."
Even Google itself, of course, isn't open about everything. It limits visitors to its campus, and they're asked to sign off on non-disclosure agreements before printing out identification badges. Not all of its source code is open to inspection, and its page-ranking techniques aren't either.
Schmidt's one-day visit to the slush-covered nation's capital also includes a private meeting with the President's Management Council, a group of federal agency deputy secretaries, which a Google representative said would be "wide-ranging." He's also scheduled to attend a reception Thursday evening to kick off the opening of
and/or secret agencies space devices.
I think the only people using OS2 are you, a few banks and a couple of people in Europe who are just flat out bored.
http://linux.org.mt/article/space
http://flightlinux.gsfc.nasa.gov/
The world is moving towards open source. Closed models are on the way out. Closing your methods gives temporary advantage but as many are learning over time it hurts.
Besides, basic platforms for various items that are open would encourage innovation. It would also make it much easier and cheaper to create other craft as well.
No matter how much money NASA spends or who they hire, there will always be somebody that can take their work in areas no one at the agency ever thought of. How is this a bad thing?
Get out of the dead, antiquated thinking that says you have to hide your creation to succeed and start enjoying true innovation.
Every so often there is a purge of the old and unneeded. It happens in nature and in business. It is time for people like you to evolve or end up in the tar pits.
everywhere???? Google not so open.... No different than Microsoft.
Not much technology. Mostly "marketing trick". Core technology
should be rewarded. Google can't "make technology things", they
can only make marketing tricks. Like Circus.
Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.
http://www.google.com/search?q=manual+vs.+speech
Eric Schmidt and the balance of the Google Flunkies are now so arrogant as to believe they can advise the pinnacle of world engineering.
Listen boys, you run a FAD PRODUCT! When compared to NASA Engineers, you are a PET ROCK.
They know exactly what they are doing and exactly why they are doing it.
Google has yet to put any person "SAFELY" into space.
Get-over-yourselves, the googarogance is getting way-too-heavy for this planet.
BTW, where is my YOU TUBE MONEY?
You owe me 1.8 billion plus interest DR. SCHMIDT.
Sincerely,
James Reginald Harris, Jr.
Inventor
(a real one, not someone who just google'd it)
- Lest We Forget - The "ARIENE" Space Center...
- by Commander_Spock January 18, 2008 10:36 PM PST
- ... Which may be needed to be brought into the "influence of openness".
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(24 Comments)Substituting "TO BOLDLY GO - NASA" for "Ever Onward IBM" in the below attached video, and...
PREPARING FOR WARP.......
Now, "All Your Base (Space Centers, Space Stations and Space Ships) Are Belong To Us"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9oh3gqOEKU
8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) ..........