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Sorcerer (YC S24) raises $3.9M to launch more weather balloons

axios.com

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Re: Sorcerer (YC S24) raises $3.9M to launch more weather balloons

#11

Post by huslage »

jaccola wrote: post #9
huslage wrote: post #8

This is an anti-pattern. Doing the work that the government should be (and was) doing and then selling back the data to them or others when the data should be (and was) public domain is absolutely terrible for society. No one should fund this.

By this logic anything could become government run but never transition from government run to privately run, creating a ratcheting mechanism that would eventually lead to ~everything being government run! The pro case for privatisation (that I happen to believe in) is: you were paying for it anyway, via your tax dollars, having it private leads to competition and stronger incentives to improve/cut costs meaning it w…

You are oversimplifying here. I ALREADY paid for the weather balloons and they are no longer being launched. This is not privatization in the way that you seem to think it is. This is explicitly against the will of the people.

I'm fine if they want to make new weather balloons and sell them to people to launch for whatever reason they want. Selling what by law should be public data is anathema.

Re: Sorcerer (YC S24) raises $3.9M to launch more weather balloons

#12

Post by thrance »

jaccola wrote: post #9
huslage wrote: post #8

This is an anti-pattern. Doing the work that the government should be (and was) doing and then selling back the data to them or others when the data should be (and was) public domain is absolutely terrible for society. No one should fund this.

By this logic anything could become government run but never transition from government run to privately run, creating a ratcheting mechanism that would eventually lead to ~everything being government run! The pro case for privatisation (that I happen to believe in) is: you were paying for it anyway, via your tax dollars, having it private leads to competition and stronger incentives to improve/cut costs meaning it w…

How's that working out for public health in the states?

Weather reporting is a common good. It worked very well for pennies and benefitted the economy greatly. Why privatize it?

Re: Sorcerer (YC S24) raises $3.9M to launch more weather balloons

#15

Post by frankdenbow »

huslage wrote: post #8

This is an anti-pattern. Doing the work that the government should be (and was) doing and then selling back the data to them or others when the data should be (and was) public domain is absolutely terrible for society. No one should fund this.

The reality is that the government is not doing it, so the choices are to sit back and watch things crumble or have private companies work to try to fix things. I agree with you in principle that its a sad state of affairs though.

Re: Sorcerer (YC S24) raises $3.9M to launch more weather balloons

#16

Post by huslage »

shaism wrote: post #10
huslage wrote: post #8

This is an anti-pattern. Doing the work that the government should be (and was) doing and then selling back the data to them or others when the data should be (and was) public domain is absolutely terrible for society. No one should fund this.

Do you mind elaborating? I agree that weather data should be public but I don’t see why we should restrict innovation in the private market if there is demand for it. Also more generally, I see no issue in the government outsourcing work to a competitive private market wherever possible.

I have no issue with it if it is part of a legislative/regulatory framework. This is not inside of any framework. There has been no conversation about privatization of NOAA or any of its functions. These things need to be explicit as part of a democracy.

The current regime has upended that process and has created a situation where the government has no choice but to outsource data gathering to third parties. This is corruption and not in the spirit or the letter of the law.

This startup is attempting to take advantage of an illegal situation which is just ridiculous.

I'm happy if they want to sell fancy weather balloons to anyone that they want, even the government, but selling data back to the government that should be already collecting the data in the first place BY LAW is just corrupt.

Re: Sorcerer (YC S24) raises $3.9M to launch more weather balloons

#18

Post by huslage »

frankdenbow wrote: post #15
huslage wrote: post #8

This is an anti-pattern. Doing the work that the government should be (and was) doing and then selling back the data to them or others when the data should be (and was) public domain is absolutely terrible for society. No one should fund this.

The reality is that the government is not doing it, so the choices are to sit back and watch things crumble or have private companies work to try to fix things. I agree with you in principle that its a sad state of affairs though.

This is an excuse for normalization of a state of affairs that cannot continue to exist outside of a proper legal framework.

Re: Sorcerer (YC S24) raises $3.9M to launch more weather balloons

#19

Post by mcdow »

huslage wrote: post #8

This is an anti-pattern. Doing the work that the government should be (and was) doing and then selling back the data to them or others when the data should be (and was) public domain is absolutely terrible for society. No one should fund this.

I can see why that might be frustrating. What about this problem makes it the best fit for the government to handle? Is it prone to natural monopoly? There are lots of things that the government can handle and shouldn’t. Just because the government handled something in the past isn’t a reason in-and-of-itself for it to resume handling it in the future. I’m genuinely curious as I am ignorant of the space.

Re: Sorcerer (YC S24) raises $3.9M to launch more weather balloons

#20

Post by CGMthrowaway »

huslage wrote: post #8

This is an anti-pattern. Doing the work that the government should be (and was) doing and then selling back the data to them or others when the data should be (and was) public domain is absolutely terrible for society. No one should fund this.

Why can't private enterprise do weather?
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