Note: I wrote this on my earlier blog hosted as https://blogs.seds.org/pradeep. I recovered the text from the WayBack Machine. This post appeared on January 29, 2007 as per the timestamp. I’m trying to collect here again all my old writings spread on various blogs.
Long time no post, so here’s one finally juiced between the time I went to the bathroom and ate my breakfast.
Kirk has an interesting article and some comments on why NASA feel kids don’t like what it’s doing. Even after recently getting out of teenage just now, I still can’t explain what problems a teenager faces. Times change very quickly. Kids seem to be interested in MySpace and community stuff, something that almost all space agencies leave out.
NASA and for that matter, every space agency leaves out the community aspect of space. People are interested to interact, exchange and learn. Today’s generation of kids live on blogs, MySpace and YouTube. Even I, 20 years old believe more what the blogs tell me than what the local newspaper does. Hell, half of my friends don’t even read newspapers and get their news from MySpace and Orkut.
I know scientists at NASA may not have the time to blog etc. but wouldn’t they if their funding depended on it? You need kids and the younger generation to talk and have conversations about you? Use modern technology. Just like you would advertise on a magazine catering to venture capitalists for such funding, you put your content on sites like MySpace, YouTube and start blogging if you want the kids to talk about you. And while you’re at it, having real people helps and not some sort of abstract character like Uncle Space.
That was just my two paise worth.
Parallel Spirals 