[IP] Feds' weather information could go dark
We paid for it!!!!!!!!!
------ Forwarded Message
From: Reese <reese@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2005 12:47:37 -0400
To: <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Feds' weather information could go dark
Dave,
I'm quite certain I don't want to pay for things like weather
information twice either, assuming all the facts in this article
are true and correct.
Reese
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/epaper/2005/04/21/m1a_wx_0421
.html
Feds' weather information could go dark
By Robert P. King
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Do you want a seven-day weather forecast for your ZIP code? Or
hour-by-hour predictions of the temperature, wind speed, humidity and
chance of rain? Or weather data beamed to your cellphone?
That information is available for free from the National Weather Service.
But under a bill pending in the U.S. Senate, it might all disappear.
The bill, introduced last week by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., would
prohibit federal meteorologists from competing with companies such as
AccuWeather and The Weather Channel, which offer their own forecasts
through paid services and free ad-supported Web sites.
Supporters say the bill wouldn't hamper the weather service or the
National Hurricane Center from alerting the public to hazards ? in fact,
it exempts forecasts meant to protect "life and property."
But critics say the bill's wording is so vague they can't tell exactly
what it would ban.
"I believe I've paid for that data once. ... I don't want to have to pay
for it again," said Scott Bradner, a technical consultant at Harvard
University.
He says that as he reads the bill, a vast amount of federal weather data
would be forced offline.
"The National Weather Service Web site would have to go away," Bradner
said. "What would be permitted under this bill is not clear ? it doesn't
say. Even including hurricanes."
Nelson questions intention
The decision of what information to remove would be up to Commerce
Secretary Carlos Gutierrez ? possibly followed, in the event of legal
challenges, by a federal judge.
A spokesman for Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the bill threatens to
push the weather service back to a "pre-Internet era" ? a questionable
move in light of the four hurricanes that struck the state last year.
Nelson serves on the Senate Commerce Committee, which has been assigned
to consider the bill.
"The weather service proved so instrumental and popular and helpful in
the wake of the hurricanes. How can you make an argument that we should
pull it off the Net now?" said Nelson's spokesman, Dan McLaughlin. "What
are you going to do, charge hurricane victims to go online, or give them
a pop-up ad?"
But Barry Myers, AccuWeather's executive vice president, said the bill
would improve public safety by making the weather service devote its
efforts to hurricanes, tsunamis and other dangers, rather than
duplicating products already available from the private sector.
"The National Weather Service has not focused on what its core mission
should be, which is protecting other people's lives and property," said
Myers, whose company is based in State College, Pa. Instead, he said,
"It spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year, every day, producing
forecasts of 'warm and sunny.'"
Santorum made similar arguments April 14 when introducing his bill. He
also said expanded federal services threaten the livelihoods of private
weather companies.
"It is not an easy prospect for a business to attract advertisers,
subscribers or investors when the government is providing similar
products and services for free," Santorum said.
AccuWeather has been an especially vocal critic of the weather service
and its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The company has accused the federal agencies of withholding data on
hurricanes and other hazards, and failing to ensure that employees don't
feed upcoming forecasts to favored investors in farming and energy markets.
Weather service expands data
The rivalry intensified last year, when NOAA shelved a 1991 policy that
had barred the weather agency from offering services that private
industry could provide.
Also last year, the weather service began offering much of its raw data
on the Internet in an easily digestible format, allowing entrepreneurs
and hobbyists to write simple programs to retrieve the information. At
the same time, the weather service's own Web pages have become
increasingly sophisticated.
Combined, the trends threaten AccuWeather's business of providing
detailed weather reports based on an array of government and private
data. AccuWeather's 15,000 customers include The Palm Beach Post, which
uses the company's hurricane forecast maps on its Web site,
PalmBeachPost.com.
NOAA has taken no position on the bill. But Ed Johnson, the weather
service's director of strategic planning and policy, said his agency is
expanding its online offerings to serve the public.
"If someone claims that our core mission is just warning the public of
hazardous conditions, that's really impossible unless we forecast the
weather all the time," Johnson said. "You don't just plug in your clock
when you want to know what time it is."
Myers argued that nearly all consumers get their weather information for
free through commercial providers, including the news media, so there's
little reason for the federal agency to duplicate their efforts.
"Do you really need that from the NOAA Web site?" he asked.
But some weather fans, such as Bradner, say they prefer the federal
site's ad-free format.
Another supporter of the weather service's efforts, Tallahassee database
analyst John Simpson, said the plethora of free data becoming available
could eventually fuel a new industry of small and emerging companies
that would repackage the information for public consumption. He said a
similar explosion occurred in the 1990s, when corporations' federal
securities filings became freely available on the Web.
Shutting off the information flow would stifle that innovation and
solidify the major weather companies' hold on the market, Simpson said.
Santorum's bill also would require the weather service to provide
"simultaneous and equal access" to its information.
That would prevent weather service employees from favoring some news
outlets over others, which Santorum and Myers said has happened in some
markets. But it also could end the common practice of giving one-on-one
interviews to individual reporters who have questions about storms,
droughts or other weather patterns.
"What we want is to make sure that whatever information is provided to
one source is provided to all," Myers said.
But Johnson said it's importanst to answer reporters' questions so the
public receives accurate information ? especially when lives are at stake.
"We are not interested in turning off our telephones," Johnson said. "I
would be concerned that that would actually be dangerous."
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