Re: HWind acquisition by RMS
Posted by
Chris in Tampa on 10/10/2015, 8:33 am
And now it gets to directly help the insurance industry. Yippee.
It's too late now, but this is ridiculous.
This got transferred to a small business from NOAA last year. It seems like by law, NOAA is forced to do something like this with something each year:
https://www.sbir.gov/about/about-sbir#sbir-participating-agencies
Although it seems like Mark Powell is the one who petitioned to get it transferred to a small business:
http://www.hwind.co/Products/Legacy-Archive
But now from a small business, it will now be controlled by a parent company, Daily Mail and General Trust ( http://www.dmgt.com/ ), with a market cap of nearly $4 billion. (They own the Daily Mail newspaper in the U.K.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Mail_and_General_Trust)
The RMS subsidiary made almost $70 million in profit last year:
http://www.dmgt.com/companies/rms
It's in good hands!
From the Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Technology_Transfer_Act_of_1986 ):
"SEC. 15. EMPLOYEE ACTIVITIES.
(a) In General.--If a Federal agency which has the right of ownership to an invention under this Act does not intend to file for a patent application or otherwise to promote commercialization of such invention, the agency shall allow the inventor, if the inventor is a Government employee or former employee who made the invention during the course of employment with the Government, to retain title to the invention (subject to reservation by the Government of a nonexclusive, nontransferrable, irrevocable, paid-up license to practice the invention or have the invention practiced throughout the world by or on behalf of the Government). In addition, the agency may condition the inventor's right to title on the timely filing of a patent application in cases when the Government determines that it has or may have a need to practice the invention."
I didn't read the whole act, but that seems to be part of what we have to thank too.
"RMS is supporting the uninterrupted use of H*Wind by the academic community, who use that data extensively for hurricane research purposes."
I hope it is free! Charge a place like EUMETSAT if they wanted it, but I hope it gets to the government agencies that need it. It would be very sad if the NHC, if they use it, to have to pay for it.
On the legacy archive page it is like they are rubbing it in people's faces, it was all paid for by various government agencies.
As for this part though from that legacy data page:
"In more recent years NOAA's competitive funding environment changed and HRD's priorities evolved to the extent that support was no longer available to maintain the HWind program."
It would have taken very little effort to continue. Unless they were to upgrade the technology, other than server costs, which they probably have plenty of, and changing a few things if the data sources changed locations, it would have been very little effort.
Next time they need to pick something less valuable to give away or change the law. (What are we giving away this year?!?) Perhaps make it so that it must remain a small company for so many years before being bought by a big company. Or, you have to give it back to the government.
I very much doubt you will be getting to see the small thumbnails in real time by next year. I imagine all of that will be folded into RMS so that you do not get anything. Although the legacy data (2013 and earlier) I would imagine would be around someplace. If it were easier to download, I would download it all. It was created by the government and still has their info on it, so it could be displayed by anyone freely. |
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9/30/2015, 2:52 pm Post A Reply
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