Vendor Input to SWPC's Plan for Vendor Services

SWPC's Plan for Services

As we begin to see more and more people step forward and express interest in providing space weather services as vendors, we need to develop our "vendor services"-that which we provide to every vendor who asks (or subscribes).

There are three aspects to our plan:

Bring in, encourage and educate interested vendors
Provide real-time data and other products via a system designed to delivered data fast enough and reliably enough for redistribution or added-value products.
Develop novel products for the vendor sector, most notably model output.

Vendor Input

To begin our services to this new user community, we have begun a dialog with potential vendors. User Notes has already opened the subject about data delivery and how it may serve vendors, and it asked for interested parties to contact us. A few have done so. We continue to "invite" comment, both in User Notes and through the Web.

On our list of interested (potential) vendors are some who are extremely knowledgeable about the space environment, and some who know at least background information. The first vendor conference was organized around vendors who do not require extensive education, and thus could give us immediate, learned, considered comments.

Potential vendors are approaching SWPC all the time. Their names are added to a list of (potential) vendors and other interested people. Correspondence and feedback from this group is then a vital part of the evaluation of and planning for our vendor services.

If you would like to be on our (potential) vendor list, please e-mail to us with your name, company, address, etc., and let us know what your interest is in space weather services.
(bpoppe@sec.noaa.gov).

New Information about Products and Delivery

The first steps towards fostering a space weather industry are being taken in the form of data dissemination. By restructuring the satellite broadcast product (NOAA Weather Wire) and creating new access to real-time data (under development), we are laying the groundwork for support of vendors. The Outside User System is also supporting vendor opportunities.

Vendors may be interested in new products being developed in the Rapid Prototyping Center at SWPC.

Conference and Meeting Information

Vendor Meeting at AGU, May 1997

Tuesday, May 27, 1997, 7:00 p.m.

Room 315, Baltimore Convention Center

Report on the CRADA and Statement about the SBIR

The Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) has been signed by all parties now: Sterling Software and SWPC will be developing the first step in creating a Rapid Prototyping Center at SWPC, which will be a facility to validate numerical models and data and to transition the models into operational use by SWPC. The elements of the work to be done include an interface to the model input and output, a standardized output format, and the implementation of an initial model (the MSM, most likely). The operational output will provide the basis for improved forecasts and for supporting vendor-provided tailored space weather products.

Review of Policy Statement from SWPC

A full description of the policy was given and a discussion of the implications followed. The issue of greatest concern was that, while SWPC doesn't link to vendors and private-sector sites, it links to quasi-government entities that in fact are competing with the private sector. The current links that are on SWPC's pages are not a problem. We appreciate the concern that, quite honestly, never occurred to us. We will attempt to be sensitive to the concern.

Feedback to SWPC on Vendor Concerns

The long-term concerns, in addition to those mentioned above, were:

A Follow-on to the ACE satellite, that will assure us of real-time solar-wind data beyond the life of the current satellite (5 years?)

Data dissemination reliability, specifically making the Weather Wire and WWW products operational, supported 24-hours-per-day, with minimal downtime.

The issue of advocacy was mentioned as a critical role of the vendor community, and Jim Secan was thanked for his efforts in this arena.

Attendees

Bob Prochaska Hughes STX rprochaska@ccmail.stx.com 719-380-8800
Chris St.Cyr CPI/NRL cst@sdac.nascom.nasa.gov 301-286-3447
Amy Holman NOAA/OAR/PDC amy.holman@noaa.gov 301-713-1671
Jim Secan Northwest Research Assoc. jim@nwra.com 425-644-9660 x304
Ronn Kling Ronn Kling Consulting rlkling@tasc.com 540-347-7463
Keith Strong Lockheed Martin strong@sag.space.lockheed.com 415-354-5156
Vassilis Angelopoulos SSL/UCB vassilis@ssl.berkeley.edu 510-643-1871
Ben Domenico UNIDATA 303-497-8690
Barbara Poppe SWPC bpoppe@sec.noaa.gov 303-497-3992
Ernie Hildner SWPC ehildner@sec.noaa.gov 303-497-3311
Ron Zwickl SWPC rzwickl@sec.noaa.gov 303-497-3029
Terry Onsager SWPC tonsager@sec.noaa.gov 303-497-5713

Vendor Conference January 15 and 17, 1997, Boulder, CO

The Vendor Conference was expected to be a modest beginning for SWPC's support of the vendor industry. It was a solid start, and we got some clear messages from the participants.

SWPC must publish its intentions regarding products, customers, and future efforts so vendors can base marketing plans on them
SWPC should make a clear statement of policy on use of its products
SWPC should write a contractual arrangement with vendors that covers liability issues
SWPC should clearly publicize the nature and quality of the validation of all its products
SWPC should have a well-defined format for its data and model output

Additional discussions were less conclusive, but raised some excellent issues:

Access to products and information was suggested to be via Internet, dial-up, satellite download by request, and phone lines. New technology is pushing us to rethink old systems.
Some vendors want research-quality data sets, which may preclude delivery in real-time, although it could be high-cadence data.
Extra alert levels were requested by some vendors, and this is considered by SWPC to be an ideal opportunity for a vendor service.
The Rapid Prototyping Center at SWPC is requested to be open to vendors who are willing to pay SWPC to prototype and validate their models [remember-this is a wish list]
Several models were named and are of interest to vendors.
Data need to be sent out via well-defined interfaces in standardized ways. Data need to be reliable and continuous.
Both push and pull systems for acquiring data and products are desirable.

Attendees

George Davenport, ARINC, Inc.
Ben Domenico, UNIDATA
Linda Miller, UNIDATA
Kelly Hand, TRW
Herb Kroehl, Nat. Geophysical Data Center
Harry Petschek, MHP, Inc.
Phil Pratt, TRW
Bob Prochaska, Hughes STX Corp.
Al Ronn, TRW
Nick Gibbs, Rockwell International
Steven Fredrich, Rockwell International
Devrie Intriligator, Carmel Research Center
Jim Secan, Northwest Research Assoc., Inc.
Vince Eccles, Space Environment Corporation
Tom Tascione, Sterling Software
Nelson Maynard, Mission Research Corp.