information wants to be free!

in a seemingly rare instance given our current government, the NOAA has just adopted a policy of information dissemination that continues to preserve its excellent weather, environmental and research information being provided to the general public for free, and also using open-standards-based technology.

the NOAA had designated the first six months of this year as a period for public comment. and it appears they overwhelmingly received comments that supported their continued information distribution to the public. interestingly enough, there is a rumour going around in the /. threads that if you actually read through all 1649 comments, several were a form letter from accuweather employees which claims that the NOAA should distribute its information to commercial entities first. which is very, very interesting, because the NWS provides, for free, NEXRAD updates at 7-10 minute intervals on average, and closer to 5 minute intervals when the area is experiencing precipitation. accuweather.com makes you pay for any updates more frequently than 15 minutes. hmmmmmm.

i am extremely happy that the NOAA has chosen such a policy. not only am i completely addicted to their site (ya think? :) but i'm entirely relieved to see a federal agency under the bush administration choose explicit public good and public service over catering to business interests. not only that, but it's an agency which is actively engaged in environmental research, and we've all seen what the bush administration does with that.