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Developing Integrated Taxonomies for a Tiered Information Architecture

This viewgraph presentation reviews the concept of developing taxonomies for an information architecture. In order to assist people in accessing information required to access information and retrieval, including cross repository searching, a system of nested taxonomies is being developed. Another facet of this developmental project is collecting and documenting attributes about people, to allow for several uses: access management, i.e., who are you and what can you see?; targeted content delivery i.e., what content helps you get your work done?; w ork force planning i.e., what skill sets do you have that we can appl y to work?; and IT Services i.e., How can we provision you with the proper IT services?

information architecture↗

Exploring the Unknown

One of the most important developments of the twentieth century has been the movement of humanity into space with machines and people. The extension of human activity into outer space has been accompanied by a high degree of self-awareness of its historical significance. Because most of the activity in outer space was carried out under government sponsorship, it was accompanied by the documentary record required of public institutions, and there has been a spate of official and privately written histories of most major aspects of space achievement to date. When top leaders considered what course of action to pursue in space, their deliberations and decisions often were carefully put on the record. There is, accordingly, no lack of material for those who aspire to understand the origins and evolution of U.S. space policies and programs.This reality forms the rationale for this series. Precisely because there is so much historical material available on space matters, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) decided in 1988 that it would be extremely useful to have easily available to scholars and the interested public a selective collection of many of the seminal documents related to the evolution of the U.S. civilian space program. While recognizing that much space activity has taken place under the sponsorship of the Department of Defense and other national security organizations, the U.S. private sector, and in other countries around the world, NASA felt that there would be lasting value in a collection of documentary material primarily focused on the evolution of the U.S. government s civilian space program, most of which has been carried out since 1958 under the Agency s auspices. As a result, the NASA History Office contracted with the Space Policy Institute of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs to prepare such a collection. This is the sixth volume in the documentary history series; two additional ones containing documents and introductory essays related to human space flight, including microgravity research in Earth orbit, will follow. The documents collected during this research project were assembled from a diverse number of both public and private sources. A major repository of primary source materials relative to the history of the civil space program is the NASA Historical Reference Collection of the NASA History Office located at the Agency s Headquarters in Washington, DC.

Logsdon, John M.↗

MIKA: Manager for Intelligent Knowledge Access Toolkit for Engineering Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval

Repositories of safety reports are often underutilized and only analyzed manually by trained experts, despite safety management systems requiring reports. These collections of documents contain a wealth of information from past projects and operations that could improve system safety and design. Advances in natural language processing techniques have improved information extraction and retrieval in consumer technology, biomedicine, and finance, for instance, but have not been applied to engineering documents on the same scale. To this end, the Manager for Intelligent Knowledge Access (MIKA) open-source toolkit has been developed for rapid knowledge discovery and information retrieval in safety engineering applications. The MIKA toolkit uses state-of-the-art natural language processing algorithms and allows a user to apply these methods to their own dataset. This paper describes the MIKA toolkit and its two primary capabilities, knowledge discovery and information retrieval, and demonstrates the toolkit via a case study on National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reports.

Machine Learning↗

MIKA: Manager for Intelligent Knowledge Access Toolkit for Engineering Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval

Repositories of safety reports are often underutilized and only analyzed manually by trained experts, despite safety management systems requiring reports. These collections of documents contain a wealth of information from past projects and operations that could improve system safety and design. Advances in natural language processing techniques have improved information extraction and retrieval in consumer technology, biomedicine, and finance, for instance, but have not been applied to engineering documents on the same scale. To this end, the Manager for Intelligent Knowledge Access (MIKA) open-source toolkit has been developed for rapid knowledge discovery and information retrieval in safety engineering applications. The MIKA toolkit uses state-of-the-art natural language processing algorithms and allows a user to apply these methods to their own dataset. This paper describes the MIKA toolkit and its two primary capabilities, knowledge discovery and information retrieval, and demonstrates the toolkit via a case study on National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reports.

Systems Engineering↗

The Nasa SRA Process as It Relates to Open-Source Workflows Developed for GeneLab Data Processing

To release open, standards-compliant processed data sets in the Open Science Data Repository (OSDR), the GeneLab Data Processing team works with the scientific community through the OSDR Analysis Working Groups to design and build open-source data processing pipelines. Once baselined internally, these pipelines are wrapped into workflows and published on the NASA GeneLab Data Processing public GitHub repository along with detailed instructions for installation and use. Each workflow must be approved through NASA's Software Release Authorization (SRA) process prior to publishing. However, the SRA process lacks sufficient documentation and clarity regarding which forms are applicable for new open-source software that utilizes publicly available 3rd party tools, and the SRA process can take several months to complete, making sharing software outside of NASA cumbersome and in contradiction with the concept of Open Science. Furthermore, the SRA process was designed as a one-size fits all approach and thus many of the questions asked are not applicable to our open-source workflows. Here we describe the software provided on the NASA GeneLab Data Processing GitHub repository, summarize our experiences with the SRA process to release these software, and propose a more stream-lined approach for review of open-source projects.

Software Release Authorization↗

The NASA SRA Process as it Relates to Open-Source Workflows Developed for GeneLab Data Processing

To release open, standards-compliant processed data sets in the Open Science Data Repository (OSDR), the GeneLab Data Processing team works with the scientific community through the OSDR Analysis Working Groups to design and build open-source data processing pipelines. Once baselined internally, these pipelines are wrapped into workflows and published on the NASA GeneLab Data Processing public GitHub repository along with detailed instructions for installation and use. Each workflow must be approved through NASA's Software Release Authorization (SRA) process prior to publishing. However, the SRA process lacks sufficient documentation and clarity regarding which forms are applicable for new open-source software that utilizes publicly available 3rd party tools, and the SRA process can take several months to complete, making sharing software outside of NASA cumbersome and in contradiction with the concept of Open Science. Furthermore, the SRA process was designed as a one-size fits all approach and thus many of the questions asked are not applicable to our open-source workflows. Here we describe the software provided on the NASA GeneLab Data Processing GitHub repository, summarize our experiences with the SRA process to release these software, and propose a more stream-lined approach for review of open-source projects.

Software Release Authorization↗

Bayesian Inference for NASA Probabilistic Risk and Reliability Analysis

This document, Bayesian Inference for NASA Probabilistic Risk and Reliability Analysis, is intended to provide guidelines for the collection and evaluation of risk and reliability-related data. It is aimed at scientists and engineers familiar with risk and reliability methods and provides a hands-on approach to the investigation and application of a variety of risk and reliability data assessment methods, tools, and techniques. This document provides both: A broad perspective on data analysis collection and evaluation issues. A narrow focus on the methods to implement a comprehensive information repository. The topics addressed herein cover the fundamentals of how data and information are to be used in risk and reliability analysis models and their potential role in decision making. Understanding these topics is essential to attaining a risk informed decision making environment that is being sought by NASA requirements and procedures such as 8000.4 (Agency Risk Management Procedural Requirements), NPR 8705.05 (Probabilistic Risk Assessment Procedures for NASA Programs and Projects), and the System Safety requirements of NPR 8715.3 (NASA General Safety Program Requirements).

Dezfuli, Homayoon↗

SeaWiFS technical report series. Volume 20: The SeaWiFS bio-optical archive and storage system (SeaBASS), part 1

This document provides an overview of the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) Bio-Optical Archive and Storage System (SeaBASS), which will serve as a repository for numerous data sets of interest to the SeaWiFS Science Team and other approved investigators in the oceanographic community. The data collected will be those data sets suitable for the development and evaluation of bio-optical algorithms which include results from SeaWiFS Intercalibration Round-Robin Experiments (SIRREXs), prelaunch characterization of the SeaWiFS instrument by its manufacturer -- Hughes/Santa Barbara Research Center (SBRC), Marine Optical Characterization Experiment (MOCE) cruises, Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY) deployments and refurbishments, and field studies of other scientists outside of NASA. The primary goal of the data system is to provide a simple mechanism for querying the available archive and requesting specific items, while assuring that the data is made available only to authorized users. The design, construction, and maintenance of SeaBASS is the responsibility of the SeaWiFS Calibration and Validation Team (CVT). This report is concerned with documenting the execution of this task by the CVT and consists of a series of chapters detailing the various data sets involved. The topics presented are as follows: 1) overview of the SeaBASS file architecture, 2) the bio-optical data system, 3) the historical pigment database, 4) the SIRREX database, and 5) the SBRC database.

Hooker, Stanford B.↗

ISHM Anomaly Lexicon for Rocket Test

Integrated Systems Health Management (ISHM) is a comprehensive capability. An ISHM system must detect anomalies, identify causes of such anomalies, predict future anomalies, help identify consequences of anomalies for example, suggested mitigation steps. The system should also provide users with appropriate navigation tools to facilitate the flow of information into and out of the ISHM system. Central to the ability of the ISHM to detect anomalies is a clearly defined catalog of anomalies. Further, this lexicon of anomalies must be organized in ways that make it accessible to a suite of tools used to manage the data, information and knowledge (DIaK) associated with a system. In particular, it is critical to ensure that there is optimal mapping between target anomalies and the algorithms associated with their detection. During the early development of our ISHM architecture and approach, it became clear that a lexicon of anomalies would be important to the development of critical anomaly detection algorithms. In our work in the rocket engine test environment at John C. Stennis Space Center, we have access to a repository of discrepancy reports (DRs) that are generated in response to squawks identified during post-test data analysis. The DR is the tool used to document anomalies and the methods used to resolve the issue. These DRs have been generated for many different tests and for all test stands. The result is that they represent a comprehensive summary of the anomalies associated with rocket engine testing. Fig. 1 illustrates some of the data that can be extracted from a DR. Such information includes affected transducer channels, narrative description of the observed anomaly, and the steps used to correct the problem. The primary goal of the anomaly lexicon development efforts we have undertaken is to create a lexicon that could be used in support of an associated health assessment database system (HADS) co-development effort. There are a number of significant byproducts of the anomaly lexicon compilation effort. For example, (1) Allows determination of the frequency distribution of anomalies to help identify those with the potential for high return on investment if included in automated detection as part of an ISHM system, (2) Availability of a regular lexicon could provide the base anomaly name choices to help maintain consistency in the DR collection process, and (3) Although developed for the rocket engine test environment, most of the anomalies are not specific to rocket testing, and thus can be reused in other applications.

Schmalzel, John L.↗

NSSDC and WDC-A-R/S document availability and distribution services

Documents available from the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) and the World Data Center A for Rockets Satellites are described. The availability, costs, ordering procedures for documents presently available, and the procedures for obtaining future documents are given. NSSDC, established by NASA to further the widest practicable use of reduced data obtained from space science investigations and to provide investigators with an active repository for such data, is responsible for the active collection, organization, storage, announcement, retrieval, dissemination, and exchange of data received from satellite experiments. Information on sounding rocket investigations is also collected.

Source record↗

Recent technology products from Space Human Factors research

The goals of the NASA Space Human Factors program and the research carried out concerning human factors are discussed with emphasis given to the development of human performance models, data, and tools. The major products from this program are described, which include the Laser Anthropometric Mapping System; a model of the human body for evaluating the kinematics and dynamics of human motion and strength in microgravity environment; an operational experience data base for verifying and validating the data repository of manned space flights; the Operational Experience Database Taxonomy; and a human-computer interaction laboratory whose products are the display softaware and requirements and the guideline documents and standards for applications on human-computer interaction. Special attention is given to the 'Convoltron', a prototype version of a signal processor for synthesizing the head-related transfer functions.

Jenkins, James P.↗

Cloud Aerosol LIDAR Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) - Data Management - Data Products Catalog V4.94

The CALIPSO V2.00 Lidar Level 2 Polar Stratospheric Cloud data product is an updated version of an already order-able dat set. The changes were signed off by the CALIPSO Configuration Control Board, versioned, and the code uploaded to a code repository. There is no ITAR/SBU data or code associated with this product. Data will be publicly order-able at the NASA LaRC Atmospheric Sciences Data Center (ASDC). All documentation and web sites will be made public once the data product is released. The data is in HDF4 format and will be generated for majority of the mission (June 2006 - March 2021). The attached Data Products Catalog (v4.94) describes this new product in section 2.14, pp 115- 119.

Mark Vaughan↗

Cloud - Aerosol LIDAR Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) - Data Management System: Data Products Catalog V4.95

The CALIPSO V4.51 Lidar Level 1 and Level 2 data product is an updated version of an already order-able dataset. The changes were signed off by the CALIPSO Configuration Control Board, versioned, and the code uploaded to a code repository. There is no ITAR/SBU data or code associated with this product. Data will be publicly order-able at the NASA LaRC Atmospheric Sciences Data Center (ASDC). All documentation and web sites will be made public once the data product is released. The data is in HDF4 format and will be generated for majority of the mission (June 2006 - August 2023). The attached Data Products Catalog (v4.95) describes the content of these new data products.

Mark Vaughan↗

EVA Wiki - Transforming Knowledge Management for EVA Flight Controllers and Instructors

The EVA (Extravehicular Activity) Wiki was recently implemented as the primary knowledge database to retain critical knowledge and skills in the EVA Operations group at NASA's Johnson Space Center by ensuring that information is recorded in a common, searchable repository. Prior to the EVA Wiki, information required for EVA flight controllers and instructors was scattered across different sources, including multiple file share directories, SharePoint, individual computers, and paper archives. Many documents were outdated, and data was often difficult to find and distribute. In 2011, a team recognized that these knowledge management problems could be solved by creating an EVA Wiki using MediaWiki, a free and open-source software developed by the Wikimedia Foundation. The EVA Wiki developed into an EVA-specific Wikipedia on an internal NASA server. While the technical implementation of the wiki had many challenges, the one of the biggest hurdles came from a cultural shift. Like many enterprise organizations, the EVA Operations group was accustomed to hierarchical data structures and individually-owned documents. Instead of sorting files into various folders, the wiki searches content. Rather than having a single document owner, the wiki harmonized the efforts of many contributors and established an automated revision control system. As the group adapted to the wiki, the usefulness of this single portal for information became apparent. It transformed into a useful data mining tool for EVA flight controllers and instructors, and also for hundreds of other NASA and contract employees. Program managers, engineers, astronauts, flight directors, and flight controllers in differing disciplines now have an easier-to-use, searchable system to find EVA data. This paper presents the benefits the EVA Wiki has brought to NASA's EVA community, as well as the cultural challenges it had to overcome.

Johnston, Stephanie↗

EVA Wiki - Transforming Knowledge Management for EVA Flight Controllers and Instructors

The EVA Wiki was recently implemented as the primary knowledge database to retain critical knowledge and skills in the EVA Operations group at NASA's Johnson Space Center by ensuring that information is recorded in a common, easy to search repository. Prior to the EVA Wiki, information required for EVA flight controllers and instructors was scattered across different sources, including multiple file share directories, SharePoint, individual computers, and paper archives. Many documents were outdated, and data was often difficult to find and distribute. In 2011, a team recognized that these knowledge management problems could be solved by creating an EVA Wiki using MediaWiki, a free and open-source software developed by the Wikimedia Foundation. The EVA Wiki developed into an EVA-specific Wikipedia on an internal NASA server. While the technical implementation of the wiki had many challenges, one of the biggest hurdles came from a cultural shift. Like many enterprise organizations, the EVA Operations group was accustomed to hierarchical data structures and individually-owned documents. Instead of sorting files into various folders, the wiki searches content. Rather than having a single document owner, the wiki harmonized the efforts of many contributors and established an automated revision controlled system. As the group adapted to the wiki, the usefulness of this single portal for information became apparent. It transformed into a useful data mining tool for EVA flight controllers and instructors, as well as hundreds of others that support the EVA. Program managers, engineers, astronauts, flight directors, and flight controllers in differing disciplines now have an easier-to-use, searchable system to find EVA data. This paper presents the benefits the EVA Wiki has brought to NASA's EVA community, as well as the cultural challenges it had to overcome.

Johnston, Stephanie S.↗

EVA Wiki - Transforming Knowledge Management for EVA Flight Controllers and Instructors

The EVA Wiki was recently implemented as the primary knowledge database to retain critical knowledge and skills in the EVA Operations group at NASA's Johnson Space Center by ensuring that information is recorded in a common, easy to search repository. Prior to the EVA Wiki, information required for EVA flight controllers and instructors was scattered across different sources, including multiple file share directories, SharePoint, individual computers, and paper archives. Many documents were outdated, and data was often difficult to find and distribute. In 2011, a team recognized that these knowledge management problems could be solved by creating an EVA Wiki using MediaWiki, a free and open-source software developed by the Wikimedia Foundation. The EVA Wiki developed into an EVA-specific Wikipedia on an internal NASA server. While the technical implementation of the wiki had many challenges, one of the biggest hurdles came from a cultural shift. Like many enterprise organizations, the EVA Operations group was accustomed to hierarchical data structures and individually-owned documents. Instead of sorting files into various folders, the wiki searches content. Rather than having a single document owner, the wiki harmonized the efforts of many contributors and established an automated revision controlled system. As the group adapted to the wiki, the usefulness of this single portal for information became apparent. It transformed into a useful data mining tool for EVA flight controllers and instructors, as well as hundreds of others that support EVA. Program managers, engineers, astronauts, flight directors, and flight controllers in differing disciplines now have an easier-to-use, searchable system to find EVA data. This paper presents the benefits the EVA Wiki has brought to NASA's EVA community, as well as the cultural challenges it had to overcome.

Johnston, Stephanie S.↗

Software Tools Streamline Project Management

Three innovative software inventions from Ames Research Center (NETMARK, Program Management Tool, and Query-Based Document Management) are finding their way into NASA missions as well as industry applications. The first, NETMARK, is a program that enables integrated searching of data stored in a variety of databases and documents, meaning that users no longer have to look in several places for related information. NETMARK allows users to search and query information across all of these sources in one step. This cross-cutting capability in information analysis has exponentially reduced the amount of time needed to mine data from days or weeks to mere seconds. NETMARK has been used widely throughout NASA, enabling this automatic integration of information across many documents and databases. NASA projects that use NETMARK include the internal reporting system and project performance dashboard, Erasmus, NASA s enterprise management tool, which enhances organizational collaboration and information sharing through document routing and review; the Integrated Financial Management Program; International Space Station Knowledge Management; Mishap and Anomaly Information Reporting System; and management of the Mars Exploration Rovers. Approximately $1 billion worth of NASA s projects are currently managed using Program Management Tool (PMT), which is based on NETMARK. PMT is a comprehensive, Web-enabled application tool used to assist program and project managers within NASA enterprises in monitoring, disseminating, and tracking the progress of program and project milestones and other relevant resources. The PMT consists of an integrated knowledge repository built upon advanced enterprise-wide database integration techniques and the latest Web-enabled technologies. The current system is in a pilot operational mode allowing users to automatically manage, track, define, update, and view customizable milestone objectives and goals. The third software invention, Query-Based Document Management (QBDM) is a tool that enables content or context searches, either simple or hierarchical, across a variety of databases. The system enables users to specify notification subscriptions where they associate "contexts of interest" and "events of interest" to one or more documents or collection(s) of documents. Based on these subscriptions, users receive notification when the events of interest occur within the contexts of interest for associated document or collection(s) of documents. Users can also associate at least one notification time as part of the notification subscription, with at least one option for the time period of notifications.

Source record↗

Supplier Assessment System (SAS)

Background: Sponsored by NASA Headquarters; Charter - provide information to assist the quality assurance community in evaluating and determining supplier risk; Comprehensive on-line repository of supplier information; Available to approved civil service personnel from all NASA Centers, other U.S. Government Agencies, Prime Contractors, and NASA direct support contractors; User access to specific data types or documents is controlled as needed.

Dietrich, Kristen↗