In a 2011 whitepaper titled Towards Open Weather and Climate Services, the Environmental Information Services Working Group (EISWG) of the NOAA Science Advisory Board proposed that the National Weather Service begin working toward an “Open Weather and Climate Services” (OWCS) paradigm. The working group identified the expansion of access to data collected and created by the NWS as one of the principal benefits of the OWCS approach.
As of June 2014, the National Weather Service ended the OWCS program, and began soliciting information from the community on how to proceed in providing additional NWD model output. See this blog post for more information.