April 14, 2010 NOAA Climate Services Portal Prototype A collaborative, NOAA-wide prototyping effort featuring CPC, CPO, CSC, and NCDC A collaborative, NOAA-wide prototyping effort featuring CPC, CPO, CSC, and NCDC

Can we work more efficiently across NOAA Line Offices (inclusive of our partners and grantees) and more effectively serve our target publics? Can we work more efficiently across NOAA Line Offices (inclusive of our partners and grantees) and more effectively serve our target publics?

Yes! (any questions…?) Yes! (any questions…?)

We can work more efficiently across NOAA Line Offices (inclusive of our partners and grantees) and we can more effectively serve our target publics using the NCS Portal as a unifying framework We can work more efficiently across NOAA Line Offices (inclusive of our partners and grantees) and we can more effectively serve our target publics using the NCS Portal as a unifying framework Working hypothesis:

Recommended logical progression to lend focus 1. Audience (the who) Be specific when identifying audience! There is no “general public.” Clearly characterize the public with whom you want to communicate — what are their info-seeking behaviors, interests, motivations, ability to understand, etc.?

6 Why communicate with them? What’s your desired outcome? Can be to: Inform — Raise awareness, increase interest, change attitude (Passive consumer) Engage — Dialogue, interact to further raise awareness, increase interest & change attitude (Active consumer) Educate — Instruction, guided inquiry (Student, Teacher, Lesson developers) Implement — Participation, R&D, Decision support (Designers & Decision Makers) 1.Audience (the who) 2.Objective (the why) Recommended logical progression to lend focus

7 What impression or information or knowledge or skills do you want to convey? Messages can be crafted to: “position” & “brand” our agency as a trusted source inform &/or educate about the state of the science report new science results announce new data products & services address societal implications and concerns, etc. 1.Audience (the who) 2.Objective (the why) 3.Message (the what) Recommended logical progression to lend focus

8 Successful, effective message delivery hinges on its compatibility with an audience’s interests in it; their needs for it; their capacity to understand it; where / how they typically seek it, etc. 1.Audience (the who) 2.Objective (the why) 3.Message (the what) 4.Process & medium (the how) Recommended logical progression to lend focus

The who - start at the audience interface and work backward into the agency Public ContinuumEducatorsData-using CommsPolicy Leaders NOAA Climate Service NOAA Virtual Teams Target Audiences NOAA NOAA Coastal Marine Fisheries National Weather Service

Science Attentive Publics The Residual Public (unaware/uninterested) Decision Makers Science & Technology Policy Leaders Science Interested Publics Jon Miller’s model*  U.S. President, Congressional members, OMB, & OSTP  Nobel laureates, people who testify before Congress, heads of major research labs, NAS & NRC Committees  Roughly 38 million American adults track 1 or more sci/tech topics; are quite knowledgeable; willing & able to engage in policy-relevant discourse  67 million adults understand “scientific study”; 115 million understand the structure & purpose of an “experiment”.  The remaining population who is unaware &/or uninterested in science & technology. *Miller, J.D. (2004): “Space Policy and Science Policy Leaders in the United States.” A white paper presented to NASA Headquarters; on-line at

11 Decision Makers Science Policy Leaders Educators & Students Science Attentive Public, Citizen Scientists Scientists & Data Users Science Interested Publics Residual Public Museums, Science Centers, and After School & Community-based Programs NOAA Internal Public Media Public Continuum Our four initial target audience groupings

12 The ‘How’ Suggested model for development process Target audience Audience Expert Subject Expert Medium Expert External Partners 3-legged stool model: Audience expert scopes the interface; analyzes the feedback Subject expert provides content & ensures accuracy Medium expert builds the interface & ensures extensibility All three retain approve/veto power External partners allow us to scale up well beyond what NOAA can do alone “3-legged stool”“Amplification”

13 Two-pronged strategy for building relationships with our publics Climate Outreach Personnel NOAA Climate Services Portal Dialog sessions with select priority publics Our Priority Publics

Climate Science Magazine Climate Progress Page Climate Education Page For Peers & Users For Policy Leaders & Peers For Public Continuum, Media & Peers For Educators, Students & Publishers NOAA Data, Models, & Services Audience Expert Subject Expert Medium Expert Climate Science Community Partnerships NOAA Comm, Ed Council, Public Affairs, Leg Affairs, etc. For everyone Data & Services Page Office/Center Home Pages Climate Portal Page Public facing Internal Collaborations 14 Climate Portal Concept Centralized Access, Decentralized Process

*Leiserowitz, A., Maibach, E., & Roser-Renouf, C. (2010) Global Warming’s Six Americas, January Yale Univ and George Mason Univ. New Haven, CT: Yale Project on Climate Change. The Who: Americans’ evolving views on the subject of global warming

Percent of respondents using media *Miller, J.D. (2008): “Civic Scientific Literacy: The role of the media in the electronic era.” White paper presented at AAAS Conference Recent trends in public media use*

Recent trend in public science literacy* Percent Civic Science Literacy *Miller, J.D. (2008): “Civic Scientific Literacy: The role of the media in the electronic era.” White paper presented at AAAS Conference

Survey of meteorologists on climate change * Percent *NEEF Survey Results (2008) Lack of time in newscast What are your obstacles to reporting on climate change? Lack of time in field Lack of station support No obstacles Too much scientific uncertainty

NOAA’s Climate Services Portal The NCS Portal Prototype provides a well-integrated, online presentation of NOAA’s climate data & services. The prototype features four audience-focused sections: ClimateWatch for the public Data & Services for scientists and data users Understanding Climate for policy leaders Education for educators & students The Dashboard is a data- driven synoptic overview of the state of the global climate system. Past Weather allows users to easily retrieve weather data for any given location & date.

NOAA’s New ClimateWatch Magazine An online magazine written and designed in a popular style. Goal is to grow an attentive public to NOAA & climate. Contains 3 types of content: Articles and stories Images with captions & annotations Videos with scientists’ commentaries Features social media tools for subscriptions & RSS feeds, content rating, forward to a friend, and forms for facilitated feedback.

Just as a dashboard gives instant information on the status of a vehicle’s various systems, NOAA’s Global Climate Dashboard presents an overview of the current state of Earth’s climate system in historical context. The Dashboard is designed for people seeking a synoptic view about what we know about climate variability and change, particularly policy leaders. Adjustable sliders up top allow users to focus on the time period of interest. Hover cursor over graphs to produce brief “tool-tip” snippets stating what each parameter is showing. Click on graphs to jump to more detailed landing pages with more details produced in a popular style. Future plans include: - Adding future climate scenarios out to Making graphs more interactive, using MultiGraph - Rewriting Dashboard as an appliance that can be syndicated / hosted by others. NCS Portal Dashboard

NCS Portal ‘Past Weather’ The goal in evolving this widget is to present the user with a more elegant graphical output that shows the weather on the date request, but placed within a long-term climate context. Currently, this widget allows users to enter location & date info and obtain past weather data in tabular format.

26 Decision Makers Science Policy Leaders Educators & Students Science Attentive Public, Citizen Scientists Scientists & Data Users Science Interested Publics Residual Public Museums, Science Centers, and After School & Community-based Programs NOAA Internal Public Media Public Continuum Decision Makers’ confidence in sources* Space Policy / Science Policy: 1. NAS Report = 8.3 / Science or Nature = 7.9 / Space News or Aviation Week = 7.1 / Report from major university = 7.0 / Report from NOAA = 6.9 / Wall Street Journal = 6.6 / NY Times or Wash. Post = 6.4 / Congress cmte on sci & tech = 6.0 / Report from Planetary Society = 6.0 / Report from DoD = -- / Time, Newsweek, CNN, network TV news. *Miller, J.D. (2004): “Space Policy and Science Policy Leaders in the United States.” A white paper presented to NASA Headquarters; on-line at

27 “What are your primary source(s) of information when you need to learn about a given science or technology subject?” *Herring, D. (2007 & 2008): Personal dialogues with staffers. Rayburn Building lobby & visit to SVS for presentation. Firsthand personal briefings, typically requested through Office of Legislative Affairs Internet sources (Google cited most often) Library of Congress’ Congressional Research Services Decision Makers Science Policy Leaders Educators & Students Science Attentive Public, Citizen Scientists Scientists & Data Users Science Interested Publics Residual Public Museums, Science Centers, and After School & Community-based Programs NOAA Internal Public Media Public Continuum Decision Makers’ confidence in sources*