Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Public Council Teleconference: Application Rationalization — Hidden Costs and Smart Decisions
November 17 at 11:00 am US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Honorio Padrón, of The Hackett Group, who will share the drivers for companies to tackle application rationalization and the results of research that define the hidden cost of complexity. Additionally, we will discuss key decision milestones—to start or not, holding the course steady and fulfilling expectations.
Virtual Desktop Cost-Benefit Analysis — Michael Jacobs, Catlin Group
The analysis contained in this presentation measures the cost of everything from the machines and licenses to the infrastructure for virtual vs. traditional desktop environments.
Honor your best senior team members - Apply for the CIO Ones to Watch Award
Get well-earned public recognition for your top up-and-coming team members, your IT organization and your enterprise. Award winners will be announced, publicized and feted in May 2010, great timing to help attract new IT recruits to your company.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »May 22, 2008 — CIO —
On May 25, NASA's Phoenix Mars lander will enter the Martian atmosphere at nearly 13,000 miles per hour, complete a complex seven-minute series of events, then land on the red planet to begin a three-month mission to explore Martian soil and ice. Some 500,000 people are expected to watch this on the Web: Few of those people will be more interested than Jeanne Holm, chief knowledge architect for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and one of the IT leaders responsible for making sure all the images and video from this high-profile mission get managed and delivered to NASA staffers and the public without a hitch.
Few IT pros will ever work on a project as high-profile as a Mars landing. For Holm, this is round two: She also managed content for NASA's JPL during the last Mars mission in 2004.
Holm and some of her colleagues gave us a look at the massive amount of data and effort it will take to accomplish their IT mission, as well as the tools and strategies they're using, from content management to hardware hosting.
By the way, unlike many enterprises today, NASA is not afraid to go Web 2.0. This Mars landing will also be broadcast in its own area on Second Life.
This Mars mission seeks answers to some huge questions, the biggest being whether the Martian arctic can support life. To answer that, the mission will ask what the history of water is in the area, and how polar dynamics shape the climate of Mars, for example. The scientists will make use of gadgets far more innovative than Apple could imagine, the coolest of which may be a robotic arm built by JPL that will dig, scoop and grab soil and ice for analysis. (For a more complete description of the mission and the equipment and team involved, see this primer from the University of Arizona.)
The mission team includes scientists from the University of Arizona, NASA engineers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and flight systems experts from Lockheed Martin Space Systems. Holm works on the content management part of the mission along with colleagues including Carla Bitter, education and public outreach manager for the mission for the University of Arizona, and Charles White, JPL's expert on virtual world technologies, who heads up the Second Life work.