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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.
It's good to see a Government agency actually doing something proactive with technology! Props all round.
I'm happy because my concerns were addressed. I was afraid that the proposed policy was going to give commercial interests the ability to reqeust the NOAA discontinue a service without review, meaning that if weather.com didn't like the ability of the NWS to issue point forecasts they could behind-the-scenes ask for it to be ended. The modified policy now states they will "Establish... orderly processes for seeking input and suggestions to create, modify, or discontinue products and services".
It's a cool feeling to be a part of a process that actually seems to have worked to our advantage for a change.
John
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.
'Hundreds' is right! I searched their "comment" pdf for slashdot and had to tell it to stop at around 500 and I'm sure it would have kept going for quite some time.
Maybe all the "But I'm helpless..." posters should print this story out, and put it on their wall.
So, since "Hundreds of Slashdotters responded..." and NOAA both kept functioning and was able listen to the comments, would it be safe to say that they weathered the storm?
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I'm posting this for my brother who works out at the NOAA as an advanced research analyst.
--- Begin ---
Hi there Slashdot, yes, I'm a total weather freak and as such I was really glad to help serve you guys and field your comments, questions, and complaints.
What really hit home for me was how passionate many of you are for our services and that they be delivered in an open, fair medium. As technology advances, some of us tend to go for the first choice, and Microsoft, Oracle, and other closed-source large companies were trying to influence our decisions.
It was thanks to you the people of Slashdot that our eyes were opened and we have begun to embrace cheaper (which my manager likes) and more open (open-source) tools.
Thank you and it's my pleasure to help serve you and continue research our weather systems here on Earth.
Sincerely,
David M. ******* (name withheld for privacy)
--- End ---
Enjoy guys hope that was interesting as a first-hand perspective.
Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate. Ex-O'Reilly/MIT employee, now a full-time Google employee.
all the hot air in DC?
Can we get some action on that?
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.
Not every *AA is evil!
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).
It can never be emphasized enough how utterly valuable a SAME equipped weather radio can be. They do not just allow you to get up to the minute weather reports, but they also act as your first warning of any kind of serious emergency in your area.
Warning sirens are only intended to notify people outdoors, and TVs and radios are only useful if you are awake, the unit is on and you are within earshot and paying attention at the time.
When NOAA or an emergency management agency (NOAA allows them to utilize the system without running the transmissions by them first) sends out a warning message, it is proceeded by what sounds like intermittent static. In fact, the system is sending out a burst of number sequences that are decoded by SAME equipped radios that compare the number sequence to that which the user has previously entered. If they do not match, the radio ignores the message, if they do match however, a generally ear-piercing alarm sounds while the radio interprets the alert code and displays the corresponding text message before the computer voice announcement (or real person if the situation warrants it) from the NOAA station begins to broadcast. The process takes about 10 seconds (this is to give you a chance to get closer to the radio before the voice warning begins).
Here is a complete list of all of the emergency codes
They are not as cheap as a clock radio, but they are worth every penny. I'm still astonished when I come across people who live in tornado-prone areas who don't buy them despite their financial ability to do so and their fear of dangerous weather.
NOAA!
.really?
You talkin' to me?
It's Slashdot, NOAA.
Riiiiiiiiiiiight! Who is this. .
KFG
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.
We should write them some nice 'thank you' letters!
./'ers input and made decisions with our ideas in mind it would be great!
I missed this story and acting on it, but if someone with some political savvy could direct myself and others to the people who listened (and those who didn't) to
Firefox &
In addition to having written a weather warning widget with the information they provide, I've noticed that their system usually takes beatings nicely whenever widespread severe weather occurs. Based on the interactions I've had with the website in creating the widget, their backend consists of the PHP/MySQL duo... they also run Apache 2 and Red Hat according to Netcraft. Their warnings are in both RSS and XML feeds. So it's been nice working with what they've been willing to provide, especially when you consider the large audience they serve.
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
It's called ForecastFox now because of trademark issues with The Weather Channel. You may download it at http://forecastfox.mozdev.org/
si vis pacem, para bellum..."if you wish peace, prepare for war"
It is true that a lot of power in Democracy (and probably other forms as well) is given to those that show up. It looks like Slashdot did. But before we pat ourselves on the back, I found an interesting comment when I was scanning the FairweartherComments3.pdf, page 332, it was from the Director of Sales-Media of Accuweather Inc who was also in support of rejecting the changes, citing that it would break a 60 year understanding on the line between what work was done by the private and publich sector.
RTF is a proprietary format.
It's open, sure, but you can say the same about PDF.
... I would like to say.. YES! This is not only a victory for us weather nerds but for the entire population of the U.S. After all, it's all about the warning time! Imagine, all the media outlets having to pay a licensing fee to Accuweather for issuing a tornado warning... OK, I know that's pushing it but the basic point remains the same. It's our information and it should stay that way!
Also, as a trained weather spotter, I have been in contact with my local weather service office (KPUB) about this issue and they completely agree that the information be as accessible as possible.
Chalk one up for us!
bash: rtfm: command not found
Before anybody accepts this immediately as true, I'd just like to point out that this guy has posted lots of things about his personal achievements and his accomplishments, so much that you have to be a bit skeptical. Besides being the brother of an NOAA analyst, he claims all of the following... (taken from http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=131294&cid=109 59811)
Ken Jennings was my roommate freshman year at Brigham Young University
I worked for NASA for 8 years straight out of MIT undergrad.
I'm an editor for Tom's Hardware Guide
I worked for a particular company that denied another company a lucrative contract just because that company's CTO had bullied my company's CEO when he was in high school
I have TWO friends who work at Bungie
I work on LAMP software and deploy to customer's websites.
I obtained a preview release [of GIMP 2.0]
Forgive me for being skeptical, but I have trouble believing all that. A child of the post pointed to above says that the parent poster is a known troll, and a check of his recent comments shows many rated troll.
So perhaps this shouldn't be 5, Interesting?
Be a PATRIOT--because the only thing we have to fear is the lack thereof.
I'm an Aussie who uses the free NOAA weather data services extensively in my travels around the globe. I don't pay for this service, nor fund it with my tax dollars, but I can still access it for free and without restriction.
Thank you NOAA, for making the right decision for everyone on the internet, not just those that fund you.
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.
63 - In Soviet Russia the weather updates you.
19 - Notices that this service is already provided by Goatse.cx
3 - Requests to add a feature that notifies you anytime Natalie Portman comes within 50 meters of hot grits.
16 - Pondering what a beowulf cluster of these might be like.
48 - Blasting the NOAA because Microsoft is secretly behind bad weather.
27 - Claimed the request was a dupe and cited existing services provided by the NOAA.
16 - Only old Koreans use the weather.
19 - Claims that "1 0wnz d4 w34th3r cuz 1m s0 133t"
193 - Users suggesting the NOAA needs to rely on perl, python, BSD, Linux, MySQL, PHP, emacs, vi, haskell, or ruby for all future development efforts.
1 - Comment suggesting the weather should be properly called GNU/Weather (thanks RMS!)
11 - Requested a change for notices about clear sunny days. The new notice will read, "Nothing to see here. Move along."
13 - Requesting that the raw weather data and weather forcasting software be sent as part of an ebuild that they could emerge and compile the report anytime they wanted, because they've got their Gentoo system totally tweaked out for this type of application.
27 - Asked for help getting WeatherBug to work correctly on Linux w/ Wine.
9 - Posts about how Netcraft had confirmed it, weather is dead.
1 - Comment with made up statistics about how important changing was.
1 - Comment with made up statistics about how important not changing was.
32 - EA employees asked for pictures, b/c they've never seen the light of day, a blue sky or snow lit by daylight.
1 - Comment that read...
Quite an impact.
Be sure to attend The FTC workshop on P2P networks If you read the adgenda, you would think FTC is trying to convince people that P2P is a threat to consumers. It would make sense to use a spurious issue that pushes congressional hot buttons if you wanted to slap restrictive laws on P2P since protecting copyrights doesn't get out the votes.
Oh, yeah the weather. I bike to work in new england: a very detailed forcast is critical to my saftey so this little victory is a serious win from my perspective. I already paid taxes for this data...be damned if I'll pay twice for it.
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
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