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NOAA Adopts New Net Policy
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has adopted a
new policy which applies to provision of all National Weather Service environmental information, including forecasts, warnings, and observations. In June,
/. reported that NOAA was taking comments on the proposed policy.
Hundreds of Slashdotters responded. And it made a difference: NOAA will make its data and products available in internet-accessible, vendor-neutral form and will use other dissemination technologies, e.g. satellite broadcast, NOAA Weather Radio, and wireless, as appropriate. Congrats to the Slash community for making a difference and helping to set US Govt policy.
Does this mean someone could write a free version of weatherbug that doesn't include the annoying spyware and registration? That'd be nice.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
This just goes to show that not all hope is lost in participatory government. I know I get frustrated at times with how much clout corporations have in government operations, but every now and again I get a little glimmer of hope.
Per Square Mile, a blog about density
Least they listen every once in a while. Still, it's good to see that at least ONE agency remembers that the people are supposed to run the government, not the other way around.
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
Maybe all the "But I'm helpless..." posters should print this story out, and put it on their wall.
I like Chuck Palahniuk as much as the next burnt-out twenty-something office worker, but like Nietzsche, not everything he writes is an endorsement of what comes out of his pen, or for that matter, the gospel truth.
YLFI,a beautiful and unique snowflake
One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
this lasts.
All it will take is someone from TWC or some of the other commercial repackagers of NWS information who happens to have been a good RNC/TeamW contributor to put a whisper in Karl Rove's ear that NOAA is out of line here, that those commie freeniks should have to pay for the information, and it will then fall under some blanket of the US PATRIOT Act, National Security, DMCA, etc., so that their handle on the data from NOAA/NWS is impenetrable for the untermenschen (ie., the rest of us).
If we could only get that kind of voice on the issues of copyright and patents!!
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
The big problem with NOAA is getting the data out the door. Even their NWS field offices only get a small piece of what's available, and they have very tight bandwidth limitations. For example, it would be great to get all of the GFS ensemble member grids in real time, but they're largely unavailable; and it's really a small ensemble compared to what the future (should) hold.
To whomever identified this point, whether it was a commenter or NOAA staff member:
"Mission connection: NOAA's information services will support the NOAA mission. As a government agency, NOAA recognizes its core responsibility to protect life and property."
The responsibility to protect life and property trumps all other concerns. Providing for the security of citizens is the primary responsibility of government. Supplying the data only to commercial entities would be improper delegation of that responsibility.
What the heck does proprietary matter?
There are plenty of ISO and ANSI standards which are patent-encumbered. And you usually have to pay money to get access to the standards documents.
Non-proprietary doesn't mean open.
And proprietary doesn't mean non-open.
So what's the point in distinguishing them, then? Not many people care about who created the standard. People do care about if they can implement it for free, and freely.
Congrats to the Slash community for making a difference and helping to set US Govt policy.
And thanks to NOAA for being receptive to non-corporate opinions.
Flying is easy, just throw yourself at the ground and miss. -Douglas Adams