Hurricane forecasts losing major tool to private enterprise...scary stuff.

[madfloridian]

Florida State University at Tallahassee has entered the world of private enterprise....and sold one of the best tools the National Hurricane Center has had for forecasting.

FSU will not give the Hurricane Center free data from its acclaimed system.

LAKELAND -- For the first time this decade, the National Hurricane Center doesn't have one of its best tools in its forecasting toolbox.

Florida State University -- the alma mater of NHC Director Max Mayfield -- will not send data to the NHC from its acclaimed Superensemble computer forecasting model this season because it sold the commercial rights to its patented technology to a North Carolina company called Weather Predict.

The dilemma has pitted scientists against private enterprise and could put a price tag on information used to determine whether millions of people need to be evacuated as a storm approaches.

FSU meteorologists, including T.N. Krishnamurti, who created the forecast method in 1998, say they've been ordered by school administrators not to send Superensemble data to the NHC.

Just as we approach hurricane season. Glad the Ledger covered this.

[Kagemusha]

1. Santorum must be thrilled.

Sad stuff.

[Patiod]

12. He has to protect "Accu-Weather", a PA company

who of course donates to his campaigns.

[TomInTib]

2. Isn't Santorum behind this train wreck?

I just know I have seen some link to that.

[unhappycamper]

6. It took me a few minutes to find Tricky Rick's bill.

See post #5.

[alfredo]

3. WTF? Pretty soon we will be charged money if we look outside to

see if it is raining.

[Armstead]

4. That's disgusting -- But typical of America after the last 30 years

Florida STATE University presumably means it is a taxpayer-funded school.

And whether it is or not, such vital technology should be considered part of the PUBLIC infrastructure. Thus it should be available for the public benefit, not locked up and only made available for those who are seeking a profit.

If that company wants to make money at forecasting, they ought to go out and invent their own damn system, instead of hijacking this one.

It's the whole damn "Profit Uber Alles" mentality that's been shoved down our throats since the 1970's.

[madfloridian]

8. They received federal grants for that program to provide to NHC

From the article:

"What Romano does know is that FSU received federal grants "to fund the improvement of the Superensemble forecast model and for FSU to provide model forecasts to the NHC for operational hurricane forecasting."

Seems to me that alone should keep them from selling it for profit. Maybe I just don't understand state universities and for profit.

[Minnesota_Lib]

10. Oops...meant to respond to orginal poster---moving this post

[unhappycamper]

5. I'll bet this ties in somehow with Tricky Rick's

S.786 bill to prevent the National Weather Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 'competing' with Accuweather. :tinfoilhat:

[madfloridian]

7. Hubby just exploded...said it was developed with our "effing" tax money.

This makes me furious, and it scares me. The forecasters have depended a lot on that technology.

[acmejack]

9. That's what taxpayers are good for!

We fund these things so others may reap the profit. Nice business model, huh?

[Robbien]

13. More than likely this was sold for pennies on the dollar

Most public funded programs are privatized at huge discounts.

Just part of the package of this new world of globalization.

[Minnesota_Lib]

16. Considering that one of WP’s management team, Joel K. Sivillo,...

...was formally employed by the Department of Meteorology and NOAA/FSU Cooperative Institute for Tropical Meteorology, Florida State University, I'd have to guess the price tag was really, really cheap...and the kickbacks enormous.

This sounds a bit like a conflict of interest, no?

http://ams.allenpress.com/amsonline/?request=get-document&doi=10.1175%2F1520-0434(1997)012%3C0809:AEFP%3E2.0.CO%3B2

[madfloridian]

19. Could you post a little more of the article? Subscription only.

About that Joel K. Sivillo? Thanks. Wonder if the reporter, Diane Lacey Allen knows about that.

:hi:

[Minnesota_Lib]

20. I found it via Google. It is just an article written by Sivillo that...

..identifies him as working at FSU. Nothing in the article itself is significant.

I tired copy and pasting the link into my browser and that didn't work either.

Here is the Weather Predict site that identifies Joel Sivillo as part of top managament.

http://www.weatherpredict.com/management.html

And here is the title of the article I Googled.

doi: 10.1175/1520-0434(1997)012<0809:AEFP>2.0.CO;2
Weather and Forecasting: Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 809–818.

An Ensemble Forecasting Primer
Joel K. Sivillo and Jon E. Ahlquist

Department of Meteorology and NOAA/FSU Cooperative Institute for Tropical Meteorology, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
________________________________________--

Like I said, nothing in the article that is of any significance, except to show that one of Weather Predict's top managers worked at FSU's meteorology dept. If you want to see it just goolge Joel Sivillo and it will be near the bottom of the second page.

I just thought it was interesting that this guy has connections to both WP and FSU. Did he have a hand in developing this technology, then leave, help start a private weather forecasting company and then buy the tech that was paid for by public grants? Something stinks here.....

[madfloridian]

21. Thanks, I agree something is very wrong.

In fact with the whole thing.

[Minnesota_Lib]

11. Weather Predict's CEO puts profits over people's lives.....

His is another kind of financial forecast
By Joe Rauch

<snip>

"They’re for customers from his old stomping grounds — stockbrokers, commodities traders and such. A hot summer with heavy air conditioning might drive up the price of utility shares. A fall hurricane could double plywood sales. “I never really left the financial world.”

<snip>

Khadilkar wants to expand by selling information to retailers and others whose profits are affected by the weather. “If you’re trading futures on, say, natural-gas prices, you want to know when the weather is turning colder. But companies like The Home Depot also need this information so they know where to allocate inventory in anticipation of a hurricane or blizzard.”
__________________

Page down at this link for the full profile: http://www.businessnc.com/archives/2005/05/people.html

This is truely disgusting...they are monopolizing this technolgy so businesses and stock traders can maximize profits from weather disasters.

[madfloridian]

14. Outrageous.....taxpayer and grant money went to that guy?

"Customers of Weather Predict, founded in 2000 in Tallahassee, Fla., pay fees — typically several thousand dollars a month — for forecasts that Khadilkar says are more accurate than free ones. Some also pay a share of the profits the forecasts earn them. The forecasts are based on a proprietary system developed at Florida State University and use a patented mathematical model. Customers have password access to their own Web sites, which are continually updated, and can get telephone consulting."

I gather from the article I posted that the grant stipulated they had to provide to the weather service......I guess they forgot to say not to sell it.

[Minnesota_Lib]

15. "Some also pay a share of the profits the forecasts earns them.."

..that alone says alot about these freaking whores. God I am pissed!

[Armstead]

26. This is the equivalent of HUD building public housing and then....

selling it to some rich jerk for upscale condominiums.

[Jara sang]

17. "Hurricane approaching! Do you need to evacuate? Pay $100.00 to find out."

We'll be seeing those banners soon.

[halobeam]

18. Can any action be taken? Taxpayer did pay for this, right?

How can it be sold and to someone who will charge the "real owner" access to their "own" INFORMATION!. UGH.

[pitohui]

22. this is why we need eminent domain folks

the national hurricane center should demand the data with court order if need be, commercial interests cannot take precedence over human life of millions

florida is likely in the bullseye this summer, so i suggest all florida residents get cracking and put pressure on your representatives, state and national, as well as the national hurricane center itself, to get an immediate court order to seize the data

absolutely no excuse for this to be tolerated

it was developed w. taxpayer's money and it should not be privatized without public discussion, period, end of sentence

[bananas]

25. Time for preventive pre-emptive eminent domain

Any city or county in which the data and programs physically resides can use eminent domain.

[intheflow]

23. Jesus! WTF is wrong with these people?

Katrina wasn't convincing enough for the need to have the most accurate weather info available free of charge to the masses? I mean, they had the info before Katrina and look how many people died! Imagine how bad the next storm will be if the best forecasts are proprietary information! :grr:

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. This is criminal. People are going to die because of this decision.

I cannot wait for a Democrat to take office and we can be assured that protecting the public will once again become a priority.