Freese-Notis

Infobox_Company
company_name = Freese-Notis Weather
company_type = Private
foundation = Ames, Iowa (1973)
location_city = Des Moines, Iowa
location_country = USA
key_people = Harvey Freese, Co-founder
Charles Notis Co-founder
D. R. Arthur, CIO

industry = Weather forecasting Industry specific weather forecasting EIA natural gas forecast Internet access services Agriculture and farming weather
services = Meteorological
Doppler weather radar imaging
DSL
Video weather services
Forensic meteorology
Commodities forecasts
Zipcode weather data
Weather forecasting services
homepage = [http://www.weather.net/ www.weather.net]
[http://www.energy.net/ www.energy.net] The Freese-Notis Weather company, commonly known as Freese-Notis, is currently a world leading weather forecasting corporation and is known worldwide for its mid-range and long range weather forecasts. Headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, United States, it has a global presence in the fields of meteorology, analytics, and related services, and also provides Internet Access DSL and Web hosting services. The company strengths for natural gas and energy markets now creates forecasts spanning industries such as media and web content found in the United States and foreign countries.

Company history

Charlie Notis and Harvey Freese both were students at Iowa State University in 1973. The company originated on the Iowa State University campus in nearby Ames while they were post-grad students at Iowa State during the 1973 oil crisis.

The partnership was formalized on May 11973 with a typewriter as its first piece of office equipment and acted as collateral for shares of stock. A friend of Harvey and Charlie suggest to name the enterprise "Freese-Notis Weather." [http://www.weather.net/html/about.html]

The only "problem" (if you want to call it that) with the name was that during the first couple years of existence, some of the radio listeners during the summer months would get a little confused when the radio announcer would introduce the Freese-Notis forecast that some thought was a "freeze-notice" forecast. How was that possible in the middle of July? Actually, it turned out to be a perfect name for recognition and uniqueness.

In 1995 Quote.com became one of the early users of content written by meteorologists highlighting weather with commodity symbols for easy access by traders. Shortly after that, both sponsored and subscriber based web pages were added to [http://www.agriculture.com/ag/sfonline/ "Successful Farming"] magazine's site, through the portal for the agribusiness and producer audience. Doppler weather radar imaging for the site called InterRAD [http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=76155870 Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval] serial number 76155870 (InterRAD)] , "United States Patent and Trademark Office", (2000-10-30)accessdate|2002-09-17] provided a national, regional and local views across the contiguous states plus the District of Columbia but geared to the farmer. The service evolved to a second generation even more tuned to use with web portals after the year 2000 to included mobile applications and other kinds of weather map displays.

In 1995, other web sites added sponsored content pieces and subscription services. Into the later years of the Internet boom, even companies like Enron's Azurix subsidiary added content from Freese-Notis containing unique weather information related to water consumption and use. Irrigation users of the Azurix web site had a unique perspective on risk management with Freese-Notis weather providing a series of maps outlining the trends for their operations. Freese-Notis had also been the recipients of cite web
date = December 12, 1999
url = http://enron.trampolinesystems.com/focus/19185#focus=/search/freese&lightbox=/show_email/145280&
title = "The Christmas Baskets have been ordered."
work = Trampoline
publisher = Trampoline Systems
accessdate = 2004-03-14] Christmas Baskets from Enron trading for appreciation of their weather forecasting services multiple times, even in 2001 making the final cut despite the troubles within that firm.

Although unique subscription based web content with earlier partners like Quote.com, the general model switched to either advertising based or sponsor based types of web content. Eventually those forms became more prevalent in the later years as the era shifted with the models of various portals. Only a very high value sites like Energy.net and Hoovers remain for subscriber access in the current form of the Internet with paid contract access for a select and exclusive few seeking a market advantage.

Recent developments

Charlie Notis and Harvey Freese acquired Captain Jack Communications based in Ankeny, Iowa in the summer of 2007cite web
date = August 7, 2007
url = http://iowa.realestaterama.com/principal-real-estate-unit-buys-colorado-offices/
title = "Freese-Notis buys Ankeny Web business"
work = News
publisher = Real Estate News from Iowa
accessdate = 2007-08-07] . Although kept as a separate entity from Freese-Notis Weather, they will work in a complementary aspect with the other's business and are in close geographic proximity.

ee also

*Weather forecasting
*Azurix
*Doppler weather radar Imaging
*DSL
*Quote.com

References

External links

* [http://www.weather.net Freese-Notis Weather corporate homepage]
* [http://www.weather.net/html/about.html Freese-Notis History and Facts]
* [http://www.weather.net/html/radar.html Doppler radar]
* [http://www.energy.net Energy.Net]
* [http://adsl.weather.net DSL sign-up for 515/641 area code coverage with Internet Access]
* [http://www.agriculture.com Agriculture.com]
* [http://www.captainjack.com Home Page of Captain Jack Communications]