[Rhodes22-list] NOAA weather privatized?

[Mark Kaynor]

Slim,

Hoo boy. Another one that's a bit tricky to explain w/ out speaking Geek.
Like they say, it's all Geek to me....

XML stands for Extensible Markup Language - it's a markup language (kind of,
but not really like HTML), that's primarily used to describe and contain
data for publishing on the WWW. Unlike HTML, however, which uses predefined
tags, the programmer defines XML tags, making it very powerful for handling
data - like weather or Amazon or eBay, or insurance info, etc. I know that
sounds a bit obtuse, so I did a quick Google search and came up w/ this site
which probably says it a bit better:
http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_whatis.asp

And here: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/xml/article.php/3473531

Mark



-----Original Message-----
From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org
[mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of Steve Alm
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 2:03 PM
To: Rhodes
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] NOAA weather privatized?

Mark,

What is an XML interface?

Slim

On 5/19/05 8:00 AM, "Mark Kaynor" <mkaynor at gmail.com> wrote:

> Folks,
> 
> I've been hearing about this for a couple of weeks and thought I'd 
> pass it along.
> 
> Mark
> 
> The National Weather Service recently began publishing weather data to 
> the public via an easy to access XML interface. Previously NOAA 
> released data in an arcane and complicated format created over 40 years
ago.
> 
> This is a great boon for everyone, as the XML feeds allow for 
> integration of weather data into personal homepages & computer 
> applications, and makes it easier for scientists, meteorology students 
> and people interested in the weather to use industry-standard tools to
access weather data.
> 
> Well, its not great for everyone, particularly companies like 
> Accuweather, who make their money reselling weather data to the public and
media outlets.
> Apparently they managed to lobby Senator Santorum of Pennsylvania to 
> introduce a bill, S.786.1, which would prevent the National Weather 
> Service from competing with for-pay weather companies. The language of 
> the bill is very broad and if passed may jeopardize the XML Data Feed, 
> the NOAA website, and even NOAA weather radio.
> 
> The following link makes sending a letter to your senators easy - 
> please take the time to do so if you want NOAA to be able to continue 
> to provide free services (the ones we already pay for with our taxes).
> 
> https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr003=uio7mzb8p1.app
> 8a&pag
> e=UserAction&cmd=display&id=123
> 
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