By Rex Hammock, CEO

(Note: Over the past few years, IBM has purchased the digital assets of The Weather Channel, the network you see on cable. IBM now also owns what you see on the internet: Weather.com and WeatherUnderground.com.)

Where most companies have limited their vision of content to marketing activities, IBM has viewed content as both a marketing activity and a unique and vital source of data that it can use in commercial services related to the military, science and a wide array of lifesaving knowledge.

Content generated for consumers (in the form of maps and charts, for example) is today being used by parents, truck drivers and countless others in southern Louisiana, whose decisions are being shaped by information from Weather.com and WeatherUnderground.com.

But that content is also generating data and content to create hyperlocal weather forecasts—at a 0.2-mile to 1.2-mile resolution—to provide enterprise clients with short-term customized forecasts.

In other words, where others saw the content on Weather.com as the reason IBM acquired the company, IBM also saw that same data not only as a source for generating content, but also as a means to collect massive amounts of additional data that can be used to help industries understand the impact of weather on business decisions.

Bottom line: Critical content and data can often be apparent to others. However, sometimes it’s right in front of us, as clear as a category 4 hurricane.

Image: weather.com

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