1 Wireless Weather Services NWS and Weather Enterprise Roles Edward Johnson Director, NWS Strategic Planning and Policy Office Forum on Wireless Weather Services June 28, 2011

2 6/24/2011 Agenda AM – Presentations PM – Discussion Summary and wrap-up

3 6/24/2011 Goal Engage weather enterprise (government, private sector, academia) and core partners (e.g., emergency managers) in discussions on how best to provide wireless services. Solicit feedback on most appropriate role for NWS in providing wireless weather services. This is not a “decision- meeting”

4 6/24/2011 Drivers Ownership of wireless devices - 89% US population (June 2009, 276.6M subscribers) Mobile devices will be world’s primary connection tool to the Internet in 2020

5 6/24/2011 Target Audience for Wireless Weather Information NWS Core Partners – for protection of life/property –Emergency managers (and their “agents”) –Agencies with missions closely allied to NWS (e.g. FAA, water managers) –Electronic media (may not be key for wireless) General public –Protect life/property –General needs (Will it rain during my BBQ?) –Sustain national economy

6 6/24/2011 Needs - Core Partners Require timely, text and graphical information wherever they are, through multiple channels of dissemination NWS needs to know they are looking at same data/products forecasters are looking at Require tools to facilitate two-way information sharing and decision support with NWS

7 6/24/2011 Needs - General Public Wants instant, reliable information on-the-go Need information presented in clear, non- technical language Seek corroborating information from many sources before acting Threats need to be better personalized to ensure responsive action is taken Concerns about limitations of wireless dissemination systems (e.g., cell network failure/congestion)

8 6/24/2011 Current Mobile Alert Services Mobile Decision Support Service/ interactive NWS Alert System –Target Audience: NWS core partners (EMs, Gov’t decision leaders, media) –Alert Types: Sub-catastrophic, “usual” watch/warning/advisory for moderate to high impact weather important to EMs GovDelivery ( alerts for general public) FEMA IPAWS/CMAS (Commercial Mobile Alert System) –Target audience: General Public –Alert types : Cell broadcast of imminent/catastrophic threats (e.g., tornado warning) –In development and scheduled for 2012; all major wireless carriers participating; requires cell tower/phone upgrades Private Sector fee services –Target audience: businesses; public subscribers –Alert types: Value-added and custom alerts Private Sector, academia free services –Target audience: General Public –Alert types: General weather info, all alerts

9 6/24/2011 MOBILE ALERTS Sector Relationships Alert Types Target Audience Community Leaders and Decision Makers (eg, EMs) Subscribing Public, Businesses General Public Advisories: Anticipate, Respond and Recover Watches: Prepare for Action Warnings: Urgent, Immediate Action Required KEY iNWS Private Sector IPAWS/ CMAS

10 6/24/2011 Other Related Government Efforts FAA – Weather Technology in the Cockpit Program DOT/FHA – Intelligent Transportation Systems – “connected vehicles” may receive critical weather information (research)

11 6/24/2011 NWS Guiding Principles Ensure NWS core partners have assured access to unaltered NWS products to facilitate communication with NWS forecasters – critical for decision support services Increase efforts to provide NWS information in standard formats/protocols to facilitate commercial provision of wireless services for general public Foster wide availability of NWS weather warnings and environmental information by diverse means Trademarks/copyrights –NWS data/products are not copyrighted and can be used freely –NWS encourages use of trademarked name/logo to identify unaltered NWS products –Cannot assert your own copyright for NWS products –Use of NWS trademarks does not imply affiliation/endorsement

12 6/24/2011 Constraints on NWS for Providing Mobile Services Resource challenges Cost to provide a national guaranteed level of wireless service delivery to the general public Cost for ongoing development and support of device- specific “Apps” to deliver NWS information Cost for maintaining/supporting direct services to general public Policy/Legal NWS will only consider approaches that do not in effect give anyone exclusive rights to NWS products.

13 6/24/2011 Draft NWS Position NWS focus on core partners; limited direct mobile service for public NWS supports commercial mobile development and national warning system through information centric services Balanced Way Forward

14 6/24/2011 Draft NWS Position NWS focus on core partners –Continue direct service to core partners – iNWS Limited direct support for general public –NWS web standards sensitive to access by mobile devices (vs. “apps” designed for specific devices) –Build into weather.gov redesign / replace failed mobile.weather.gov site Support commercial/academic sector development of services –information centric approach –Information more accessible; lower cost of entry –Promote visibility for available services

15 6/24/2011 Draft NWS Position Data Standards (current) –Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) - Emergency/alert information –Really Simple Syndication (RSS)/Atom feeds - Allow subscribers to receive timely updates and aggregate feeds from many sites into one place –Keyhole Markup Language (KML/KMZ) - Expresses geographic annotation and visualization on 2D and 3D maps Make information more accessible and lower cost of entry –Developers’ site/Wiki for better documentation of info feeds and direct feedback to NWS –Application Programming Interface (API) for NWS data access –Developers’ conference Greater visibility for commercial/academic providers –Prominent public listing of mobile services (e.g., apps) that use official NWS feeds (unaltered products, clearly labeled NWS content) –Provide information on services in NWS outreach booths

16 6/24/2011 Questions to Keep in Mind How can the weather enterprise (government, private sector, academia) best serve the needs of NWS core partners? How can the weather enterprise best serve the needs of general public/national economy? What do service providers need from NWS to support development of comprehensive wireless weather services?