Lasso Empowers Nasa Collaboration

When one mentions "databases" and "NASA" in the same sentence, the immediate tendency is to think formulas, vectors, variables and equations. But in the case of one NASA alumni association, a well-managed and accessible database-driven Web site equates to keeping valuable personal and professional ties, justifying programs and providing opportunities for collaboration.

This story begins back in the early 90s, when an aspiring engineer named Brian Roberts attended a special NASA summer program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Spaceflight and Life Sciences Training Program (SLSTP) introduces undergraduates to study and careers that blends life science and the challenges of space.

Today, Roberts, a research engineer with the NASA-supported Aerospace Engineering and Space System Laboratory at the University of Maryland, is a product of that program. More important for the next generation of engineers, scientists and astronauts was Roberts's instating a Lasso-based, database-driven Web site that is the foundation of the SLSTP Alumni Association, a non-profit supported by NASA.

Roberts recognized after completing the program, and then moving on to a professional career, that the key to keeping such a valuable NASA program funded was the creation of a centrally administered Web site would help alumni stay in touch for both personal and professional reasons. Roberts had dabbled in programming, and knew there must be platform out there that could "pull together various databases, provide a better way to promote the Spaceflight and Life Sciences Training Program - and make it easy to maintain alumni profiles."

A request for proposal was approved by NASA. The prerequisites included ways to easily update alumni information, a minimum of administration time, an integrated email system to disseminate information, a powerful search engine and a content management system (CMS) to add value to the site.

The winning bid went to Peter Bethke of Lassosmart.com who has been using Lasso, the basis of his SiteShell product, since 1997. Bethke is a well-respected Lasso developer who immediately picked up on the needs of the SLSTP Alumni Association in terms of a turnkey solution. Lasso also enables an approach that supports how Lassosmart does business.

As Bethke sees it, "I don't build applications that people have to come back to me for regular maintenance, unless it's to add a new feature. A Lasso-based site can be run by the customer or administrators. That's what I did for Brian and his organization. This site is capable of sending bulk emails to different users groups, allows access by various permission criteria, enables quick updates of alumni profiles and helps NASA gather valuable information."

Bethke will continue to use Lasso because, as he see it, "From a developer's point of view, I couldn't be happier. They give me all the tools I need, the Lasso team is a great value-add for me, and the intimate Lasso community has provided me with many valued colleagues and friends."

For alumni champion Brian Roberts, the Lasso-based site has exceeded expectations, while impressing NASA. The system runs with only two administrators. Roberts sends alumni update emails twice a year. And he's also getting great response from NASA which is using the data to track alumni. "I was surprised by NASA's response in the usefulness they found in the data, especially because I could send them Excel spread sheets with the latest data." And that's good news for continued support of the Spaceflight and Life Sciences Training Program.

Besides updating profiles, other prominent features includes a "clickable" U.S. map that lists alumni by state and a powerful search engine that provides inquiries by name, state and specialty, which is most helpful in finding alumni collaborators.

"I've been really pleased with the site," says Roberts. "It's a lot easier to maintain all the data and to keep the email list up to date. It used to be a pain to collect alumni data and enter it all at once. Now it takes me seconds to enter and update information, if it's not entered directly by the alumni themselves."

Additional Information

Group
NASA SLSTP Alumni Association
Project
Membership Web Site
Developer
Peter Bethke
Benefits

• Organization
• Centralization
• Ease of Maintenance