The Weather Bureau is at it again (make us pay twice for info)

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

From: TClaburn () cmp com
Subject: for IP if you wish
To: dave () farber net

At the risk of appearing to pander for page views, some further developments in
the weather information sharing debate...

http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=168601220

NOAA Wants To Change Weather Info-Sharing Policy

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wants to assure the
private-sector weather industry that it's not a threat. To that end, it has
proposed a change in its information-sharing policy and, through Nov. 2, is
seeking public comment.

NOAA's current policy, defined in its Dec. 1 "Policy On Partnerships In The
Provision Of Environmental Information," is to "give due consideration to [the
capabilities and services of the private sector and academic institutions] and
consider the effects of its decisions on the activities of these entities, in
accordance with its responsibilities as an agency of the U.S. government, to
serve the public interest and advance the nation's environmental information
enterprise as a whole."

Under the proposed policy revision, NOAA will "take advantage of existing
capabilities and services of commercial and academic sectors to avoid
duplication and competition in areas not related to the NOAA mission."

Commercial weather information companies have been particularly eager to avoid
competition with the National Weather Service, which is part of NOAA. The issue
has strained relationships in the weather enterprise--as insiders refer to the
partnership between government, academic, and commercial weather-information
organizations--for years.

The Commercial Weather Service Association, an industry trade group, points to
15 instances over the past few years where it contends the National Weather
Service has been competing with the private sector. One of the NWS 
practices the
CWSA finds objectionable is the use of Flash technology to format weather
forecasts for distribution to hotel guests via printer, fax, or the Internet, a
market some commercial providers serve. Another is the NWS's alleged intent to
develop free software such as desktop weather applications and weather plug-ins
for Internet browsers.

The CWSA also objects to the NWS's willingness to distribute weather 
information
to wireless devices. "In 2003, it was discovered that the National Weather
Service was offering a growing base of weather information to wireless devices
over at least two separate URLs," the CWSA complains. "These value-added
products are in direct competition with the services offered by America's
weather industry and the communications industry and undermine significant
investments that have been made in new technologies and communication of 
weather
information over those technologies. At least one formal complaint was filed
with the National Weather Service over this activity, but it was rebuffed."

The situation came to a head in December when NOAA abandoned its 1991
noncompetition and nonduplication policy as a result of recommendations by the
National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. That change led
U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., in April to introduce the National Weather
Services Duties Act of 2005 (S.786), a bill that would impose restrictions on
how the NWS makes its data available to the public in order to accommodate
private-sector interests.

While S.786 hasn't seen broad support, it does appear to have made NOAA more
eager to consider the concerns of the companies commercializing its data.

...


Thomas Claburn, Associate Editor
InformationWeek, CMP Media, Inc.
600 Harrison St., 6th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94107
tclaburn () cmp com
415.947.6820

http://www.informationweek.com
http://www.lot49.com

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