Houston, we have a podcast.

Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center,

episode 97, crowdsourcing.

I'm Pat Ryan.

On this podcast, we talk with scientists and engineers, astronauts, and lots of other folks about

their part in America's space exploration program and that includes some parts of

the space program that you might not think of right away. I think it was an episode of

the Mary Tyler Moore show or some classic like that in which some dopey character

asked the people who put together a television newscast, where do you get your ideas from?

No, really? Of course, in their case, the ideas come from real life, from the news.

But what if you're not reporting what other people have done? What if

you're doing things that are brand new? Where do you get your ideas from? At

NASA, the people who come up with amazing ideas for the things that

we do are also smart enough to know that they don't have all the answers or even all the

best answers. And for some years now, the agency's been making an active effort

all over NASA and the rest of the government,

and everywhere else, to ask the question

which I happen to know is critical to TV producers the world over.

I don't know what do you think?

NASA's Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation was established in 2011 to pursue crowdsourcing as a way to support

research and development efforts.

Its website says the team works with innovators across NASA and the federal government to generate ideas and solve important

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