Keith Sider
Appearances
Short Wave
What's A Weather Forecast Worth?
20 years ago, there were the few government agencies that worked in weather, and there were a fairly well-known list of private sector companies. Any of us could sit down with a piece of paper and write down the 20 main companies. And now that the private sector is vast and it goes everything from very, very tiny one or two person companies up to companies like Microsoft and Google.
Short Wave
What's A Weather Forecast Worth?
Right now, on your phone, you can pull up and look at a radar image in real time. In the 1980s or 1990s, we didn't have the cell phones to do that. But as websites became available, the National Weather Service said, well, we can actually make this data available to everybody.
Short Wave
What's A Weather Forecast Worth?
But then you've got a little bit of attention because the government typically provides all of the data it has for free. And if they're buying data from a commercial satellite, they can't just turn around and give it all for free or else that commercial company only has one customer, which is NOAA.