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DIFAX issue (fwd)

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  • Subject: DIFAX issue (fwd)
  • Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 14:42:54 -0600 (MDT)

===============================================================================
Robb Kambic                                Unidata Program Center
Software Engineer III                      Univ. Corp for Atmospheric Research
address@hidden             WWW: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/
===============================================================================

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 12:15:39 -0600 (MDT)
From: Anthony Rockwood - MSCD Meteorology <address@hidden>
To: Eric Horst <address@hidden>
Subject: DIFAX issue

Eric and the rest of the Wx community,

Your comment about the Unidata people "living and breathing" the
electronic map wall isn't quit true.  I am a member of the Unidata Users
Committee, now chaired by your very own Dr. Clark, and am a faculty member
at a school similar to Millersville (undergraduate meteorology program).  
I too have been an advocate of a paper map wall as a way of introducing
synoptic patterns to students, and as a means of maintaining some measure
of competence in hand analysis.  The UserComm is very aware of the DIFAX
issue and has discussed it many times.

I turned off my Alden DIFAX machine one year ago as a way to save
departmental resources.  It was also an experiment to see what it was like
to teach without them and to watch students try to learn without them.  I
figured that I'd force the students to look at the weather in the same way
they were likely to see it in the various types of jobs they were heading
into - on a computer screen.  After a year, my conclusion is that the
paper map wall is still a very useful tool in both education and
operations - and I'd like to find a way for us all to get it back.

Our next UserComm meeting is Nov 9 - 10.  The agenda is open and I
encourage all of you to "write your representative" and express your
feeling about your need for DIFAX and whether you feel it something that
Unidata should be doing.

Please take a look at the Unidata website (www.unidata.ucar.edu) and
follow the "About" link.  It explains what Unidata is and what its
responsibilities are.  You will also find a link to the governing
committees and their current membership.  I urge you to contact one of
them and make your opinion known.

Tony Rockwood

 ****************************************************************************
   Anthony A. Rockwood              Metropolitan State College of Denver    
   Meteorology Program              Dept.of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences 
   303.556.8399                     P.O. Box 173362, Campus Box 22
   address@hidden                Denver, CO  80217-3362                  
   fax: 303.556.4436                www.mscd.edu/~eas
 ****************************************************************************