NOUS41 KWBC 231521
PNSWSH
Public
Information Statement, Comment Request
National Weather
Service Headquarters Washington DC
1123 AM EDT Wed
May 23 2012
TO: Subscribers:
-Family of Services
-NOAA Weather Wire Service
-Emergency Managers Weather Information
Network
-NOAAPORT
Other NWS Partners, Users, And Employees
FROM: Iftikhar Jamil, NWS Chief Information Officer
David B. Caldwell, Director, NWS
Office of Climate,
Water, and Weather
Services
SUBJECT:
Soliciting Public Comments Through December 31, 2012
On Experimental Twitter Feeds
The NWS is
currently seeking comments on provision of
environmental information via experimental Twitter
feeds. NWS is
exploring use of Twitter to provide microblogging services.
Twitter is a
commonly used social networking service that allows
participants to share information with other users.
Microblogging services like Twitter serve as an important
source
of real-time news updates. The short nature of updates allows
users to post news items quickly, reaching their
audience in
seconds. Because microblogging
services are two-way, readers of
posts can reply to posts with various responses,
such as a
weather report with location, time and
images/videos. For the
NWS, aggregate
analysis of this data provides information on
storm evolution, and partner/public perceptions
and response.
Use of Twitter
will provide a complementary means to disseminate
important information about hazardous weather
conditions. The
posts will also be used for public outreach and
education and to
direct users to official NWS Web sites.
Experimental
Twitter accounts are available at this time for the
following NWS offices:
NWS Norman OK - @NWSNorman
NWS LMRFC (Lower
Mississippi River Forecast Center)- @NWS_LMRFC
NWS Pleasant Hill
MO - @NWSKansasCity
NWS Salt Lake
City UT - @NWSSaltLakeCity
NWS Charleston SC
- @NWSCharlestonSC
NWS Western Region
- @NWS_Western_US
NWS Honolulu HI -
@NWSHonolulu
NHC Atlantic /
NHC Pacific - The National Hurricane Center will
run 2 accounts, basin specific - @NHC_Atlantic, @NHC_Pacific
It is NWS’s
intent to implement Twitter accounts for all NWS
offices. New accounts will be added gradually
throughout the
comment/review period.
A current listing of accounts may be
found at http://nws.noaa.gov/socialmedia/ .
Experimental
Twitter posts will serve as a supplemental channel
to disseminate environmental information.
Availability of this
service is subject to constraints of Twitter service
availability
and to availability of users’ internet
service. Users should not
rely on this service as the primary means of
receiving
alerts/warnings of hazardous weather. NWS alerts/warnings
are
available on NOAA Weather Radio and on our official
website: http://www.weather.gov/. Responses to users’ posts are
made on a time-available basis and may be
limited, especially
during periods of severe weather.
Additional
information on the experimental use of Twitter may be
found at:
http://products.weather.gov/PDD/twitter_sdd.pdf
Users must have
valid Twitter accounts to view or post Twitter
content.
Information on Twitter can be found at:
http://www.twitter.com/
Comments on this
experimental service may be provided through
December 31, 2012
at:
http://www.weather.gov/survey/nws-survey.php?code=twitter
Disclaimers
regarding NWS use of social media services can be
found at:
http://www.weather.gov/disclaimer.php
http://www.weather.gov/credits.php#socialmedia
If you have
comments or questions regarding this Public
Information
Statement, please contact:
Ronald Jones
National Weather Service
Silver Spring Maryland 20910
301-713-1381 x 130
ronald.c.jones@noaa.gov
National Public
Information Statements are online at:
http://www.weather.gov/os/notif.htm
$$