Howdy everyone,
I intend to stay on the sidelines for this exchange as it doesn't feel
entirely appropriate for me to jump in. I'm chiming in now to only say two
things with the intent being clarification & transparency:
First, I believe Stonie was referring to the LDM topics exclusively and was
not representing the entire UPC, all staff nor all projects. I would avoid
applying his words to other parts of Unidata outside the LDM.
Second, in the last staff meeting I was present for our director had
committed to addressing these concerns to the community. He did not state
what would be addressed or when this messaging would be sent out, but he
stated that he would write something. I'm disappointed to see that has not
yet happened. Unidata staff do not have the answers as far as I know, as
of when I left we had many of these same questions ourselves. I remain
hopeful that our director will inform us what happened, how and why, as
well as plans for Unidata moving forward. I feel confident in saying these
are questions we all have.
Best,
-Mike
On Thu, Aug 8, 2024 at 10:16 AM Gallus, William A [EAC] via conduit <
conduit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I was going to avoid getting involved in this discussion since it seemed
> to turn toxic almost immediately but Henry's mention that there are likely
> others not willing to speak up motivated me to say something. At ISU, the
> two of us who teach courses that have regularly used Unidata products in
> the past agree wholeheartedly with Gilbert. If I knew more python, and my
> colleague had more time (since he does know python well), we would have
> abandoned traditional Unidata products by now, and would simply have our
> students run python codes to generate the maps needed for our weekly labs,
> instead of using Unidata products since we feel abandoned by them (I
> realize Unidata is responsible for MetPy and we are thankful for that, but
> the single best thing Unidata could have been doing for us in recent years
> was making very simple-to-use python codes available that we could just
> give to the students to do things like compute frontogenesis, create
> isentropic cross-sections, vertical cross-sections of EPV for CSI
> evaluation, etc (where the students would simply have to change maybe the
> link to a dataset, and perhaps contour intervals or levels/layers). AWIPS2
> never became a good option for those of us with decades of great cases
> archived in gempak format (boy how I wish there was an easy way to turn
> those archived datasets into things AWIPS2 could ingest so that we could
> still have our students use those cases for labs – assuming AWIPS2 would
> actually run well on our computers). Both of us tried over the years to
> learn to like IDV and constantly found it to be terrible, and our students
> did not like the little bit of dabbling we did with it. Thus, we continue
> to hang on by a thread, using garp and gempak, and hoping desperately they
> still work after every update/upgrade to our systems, while constantly
> talking about how we need to find some way to get away from all of that and
> just have students use python.
>
> I have talked to other profs who teach synoptic courses and it seems like
> the use of python in labs is really growing, to replace all the programs we
> used to associate with Unidata.
>
> In any case, I echo what Henry said and was stunned at the harshness of
> the replies to Gilbert's email. We at ISU agree with Gilbert and feel very
> sad and abandoned, and these feelings have been developing for many years
> now. I served on both the Unidata Users Committee and Strategic Advisory
> Committees in the past, chairing them at times, and don't recall seeing
> such an angry and unhelpful reply ever in my years on those committees,
> when we in the community would express concerns and share our needs with
> Unidata staff. I'm not sure what the root of the problem is – I just know
> there is a problem because I am in the trenches teaching 2 required lab
> courses every year that have depended on traditional Unidata software every
> week.
>
> Bill
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* conduit <conduit-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of Henry
> Luker via conduit <conduit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, August 7, 2024 7:31 PM
> *To:* Stonie Cooper <cooper@xxxxxxxx>
> *Cc:* mcidas-x@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mcidas-x@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; NOAAPORT <
> noaaport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; mcidas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <
> mcidas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; conduit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <
> conduit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; ldm-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <
> ldm-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> *Subject:* Re: [conduit] [noaaport] [External] Re: [mcidas-x] Concerns
> about the future of UNIDATA
>
> I'm a little disheartened, to say the least, at the responses to this
> conversation thus far. I believe that Gilbert raised completely valid
> concerns and constructive criticism in a professional manner, that were
> neither personal nor directed at any individual in particular. Speaking to
> his concerns, I can attest that these are shared by myself personally, and
> at least a few others as well (who may not be as willing to speak
> up, especially after seeing how it is being received now!). The responses
> received seem defensive, hostile, and apprehensive to an active and
> long-term member of the UNIDATA community. I would hope that as
> professionals we would be able to have a more open and honest conversation,
> that frankly goes beyond "Developers prerogative." Ultimately, it all leads
> me to wonder whether the community is actually valued or not at UNIDATA,
> beyond saying as such in the mission statement.
>
> I am a fairly new member to the community. When I first arrived, I found
> that it was welcoming, transparent, and community-based. Even as someone
> who was learning tools like LDM for the first time, I appreciated the
> open-source, community-driven, and patient nature exhibited. I am not sure
> if I could say the same now. At minimum, it would be nice to have a bit
> more transparency about the future of the projects and decisions that are
> being made. I don't understand the reasoning for making things walled off
> all the sudden, nor understand why it can't at least be explained beyond
> "it's my way or the highway." We may not agree, but at least we would have
> some insight as to what is going on and don't have to be in this position
> in the first place.
>
> Henry
>
> On Wed, Aug 7, 2024 at 4:58 PM Stonie Cooper <cooper@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Developers prerogative.
>
> *Stonie Cooper*
> Software Engineer III
> NSF Unidata Program Center
> University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
> *I acknowledge that the land I live and work on is the traditional home of
> The **Chahiksichahiks (**Pawnee), The **Umoⁿhoⁿ (**Omaha), and The **Jiwere
> (**Otoe).*
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 7, 2024 at 4:54 PM Sebenste, Gilbert <sebensteg@xxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> Stonie,
>
> I am not lobbing grenades at those in the trenches. I’m just trying to
> find out what is going on in the trenches…and I would like to know the
> reasons why.
>
> Gilbert
>
>
>
> Gilbert Sebenste
>
> Meteorology Support Analyst
>
>
>
> *From:* Stonie Cooper <cooper@xxxxxxxx>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, August 7, 2024 4:51 PM
> *To:* Sebenste, Gilbert <sebensteg@xxxxxxx>
> *Cc:* ldm-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; mcidas-x@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; NOAAPORT <
> noaaport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; mcidas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;
> conduit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> *Subject:* [External] Re: [mcidas-x] Concerns about the future of UNIDATA
>
>
>
> CAUTION: This email originated from outside of COD’s system. Do not click
> links, open attachments, or respond with sensitive information unless you
> recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
>
>
>
> Development in LDM continues, but not in github. That is for a lot of
> reasons, but lobbing grenades at those still in the trenches will get you
> next to nowhere.
>
>
> *Stonie Cooper, PhD*
>
> Software Engineer III
>
> NSF Unidata Program Center
>
> University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
>
> *I acknowledge that the land I live and work on is the traditional home of
> The Chahiksichahiks (Pawnee), The Umoⁿhoⁿ (Omaha), and The Jiwere (Otoe).*
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 7, 2024 at 4:04 PM Sebenste, Gilbert <sebensteg@xxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> Good day everyone,
>
>
>
> With the recent loss of 3 extremely valuable UNIDATA staff members, I
> wanted to inquire UNIDATA concerning several disturbing trends that I have
> been seeing with the organization. And quite frankly, what I discovered is
> disconcerting.
>
>
>
> Over the past several years, UNIDATA has been moving away from what it was
> funded to do, namely: provide weather data, software, and support to the
> University community for teaching, and also for research:
>
> “Unidata is a diverse community of education and research institutions
> with the common goal of sharing geoscience data and the tools to access and
> visualize that data.” – https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/about
>
>
>
> With this stated goal, excellent software packages used to support the
> educational and research communities have either been retired. or
> development has stopped…with minimal input from the user community. These
> software packages include GEMPAK, McIDAS, LDM (which hasn’t been touched on
> GitHub since Steve Emmerson retired), as well as others. In fact, McIDAS
> was sunset without any announcement or input from universities.
>
> When I brought these concerns to the Unidata User Committee chair, Victor
> Gensini, I found out that he had resigned nearly a month ago. This, again,
> was done without any announcement to the community. The User’s Committee is
> much more than an advisory board; it is one of shared governance. And the
> decisions made over the past several years have now culminated in an utter
> lack of transparency with the recent loss of staff. In a scientific
> community, the governing process must involve transparency to the highest
> extent possible to maintain integrity of the staff, community, services
> they provide, data, and success for end users.
>
> This is already starting to have a profoundly negative effect at the
> College of DuPage, which prompted me to write this. Even though we are a
> community college, we believe in UNIDATA’s stated vision and have shared
> our data via our website to all. Our setup here shares the weather data as
> much as we are able. Without UNIDATA’s McIDAS, GEMPAK, WXP and other
> software packages, we will not be able to share this data with others;
> additionally, we will not be able to teach the next generation of students
> with adequate software tools in a time where interest in the atmospheric
> sciences is about to peak. As a result, we have started to migrate towards
> commercial solutions to fill in the gaps. In the first 20 years of UNIDATA,
> that would be unthinkable.
>
> What is being supported? IDV is being built on a dying platform (Java),
> with apparently very few users, and one of the two AWIPS developers was one
> of the three people let go. What is left? Two of these staff members were
> the future of UNIDATA, and the other took care of critical systems and
> engagement with underserved communities. Who is doing that now? Nobody has
> answered these questions.
>
> Complete transparency has been and continues to be absolutely critical to
> the success that highlighted UNIDATA’s efforts over many years. These
> decisions have been made in darkness. Where leadership has been required,
> silence has occurred. It should not have been left to a terminated employee
> to make that announcement on his own free will.
>
> I am saying this with all sincerity because I believe that UNIDATA is
> going off-mission. I am speaking out like this because I am gravely
> concerned that UNIDATA has lost it’s way, delving into areas beyond what it
> was supposed to be, while failing to maintain and flourish what it’s
> mission statement demands. The end result has been the loss of critical
> software and support that we need, as an educational institution. And let’s
> be blunt here: if the https://weather.cod.edu site went down, a lot of
> Universities who use us would be in trouble. We know, because we see the
> number of “hits” from them in our web logs. And, if the LDM isn’t
> maintained, especially with major NOAAport/SBN feed changes on the horizon,
> the very backbone of the NWS data feed is in jeopardy. If McIDAS isn’t
> maintained, our satellite imagery goes away. And despite requests for
> Canadian radar data and other datasets that can be helpful (several
> Canadian radars cover portions of the border states reasonably well), not a
> yes or a no has been spoken to me.
>
>
>
> UNIDATA, as a DeSouza award winner, I beg that you turn back to what made
> you great: tried and true, as well as new software…data and software for
> all of us, and unquestionable, excellent support.
>
> With respect,
>
> Gilbert Sebenste
>
> Meteorology Support Analyst
>
>
>
>
>
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--
- Mike Zuranski
