Skytland is the Program Manager of NASA's Open Innovation Program where he is responsible for directing the agency's Open Government Plan and Digital Strategy, with aggressive goals towards releasing more high value data sets online, pushing forward the use of open source software, developing new technologies, and creating participatory opportunities to engage citizens in NASA's mission. Skytland has experience planning galactic-sized hackathons, envisioning future space exploration missions, designing next generation space suits, training space-bound astronauts, developing open-source software and encouraging new partnerships between government and industry, academia and organizations. His current research focus is to better understand how government can apply the art and science of mass collaboration.
In April 2012, NASA led an international collaboration with government agencies and civil society organizations around the world that culminated in a two day technology development event called the International Space Apps Challenge. The goal of the event was to promote innovation through international collaboration and it brought together over 2,000 people (ages 16-70) in