The world of free and open weather information distribution is undergoing a major transformation. In a groundbreaking announcement, the Global Weather & EAS Society has revealed its latest collaboration with the renowned Iowa Environmental Mesonet (IEM), led by Daryl Herzmann, to bring the official IEMBot accounts to Mastodon.
IEMBot, a widely-respected alert and message dissemination system created by the IEM, has long been a trusted source of real-time weather and environmental alerts for those in the field of meteorology, as well as the general public.
Within the Fediverse, many different community versions of the IEMBot accounts have been made to fit the platform, especially due to operational differences between Mastodon (and the Fediverse) and Twitter/X. Some examples of such can be found by clicking here.
The Global Weather & EAS Society recognizes the efforts of community members to bring different versions of IEMBot to the Fediverse, and we encourage all users to explore their options and choose the best one for their unique use cases.
Bringing the official IEMBots to Mastodon will help the IEM secure open and free access to important weather information, that can be used by all.
Recently, Twitter/X limited API access under a paywall, restricting the information provided by IEM from making it’s way out.
GWES is committed to providing open access and distribution of important weather information by also allowing unlimited access to the Mastodon API that will allow these bots to function on our instance.
Mastodon, a social network known for its commitment to a decentralized, open social network, provides a fitting platform for the IEM to operate their IEMBots.
Users can now follow the bots on our Mastodon instance to receive near-instantaneous weather updates and alerts directly in their feeds. You can find a list of the available bots on our instance located at the IEM’s website by clicking here!
Our Mastodon instance can be found by going to masto.globaleas.org or by clicking here.