[Bessig] Fwd: Preserving open government data: Data Rescue event this weekend at University of Colorado

[Daniel Ziskin]

I think this is more of a political response to the possibility that public
access to government data will be rescinded because it doesn't support a
particular ideology. To that end, I endorse the effort.

The USDA has already shut down access to its records of animal abuse by
agribusiness[1] and the Dept of Education has already shut down a website
that explains protections for disabled students[2]. What's next?

1.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/02/wildlife-watch-usda-animal-welfare-trump-records/
2.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/devos-disabilities-web-site_us_58a0fd7ae4b094a129ec35b8

On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 9:46 AM, Cathy via Bessig <bessig at lists.esipfed.org>
wrote:

> Not to be too annoying, but why are they having a hackathon to get the
> data? They can just ask for it. Data that has not been preserved is likely
> behind firewalls and on local storage devices. Accessing them in a
> government system is illegal. Also, even if you were to get it, you would
> probably not be able to make sense of it. If someone asked for help getting
> data, we would help them in our group. And for free!
>
> NCAR already archives an enormous amount of data. It is doubtful that is
> going anywhere. And it is well documented. Other institutions around the
> world already archive public data from the US.
>
> The real issues with data include data that has not been fully processed
> and made available. This includes data that is on tape, paper, or cd, etc.
> Or data that was recorded but not processed and documented. Some of that is
> worth saving and may be at risk with less funding but a hackathon won't
> help. And, as a scientist, data streams that are stopped (observing
> systems) are much more of an issue than saving already public data. This is
> a particular issue for climate where long, consistent records are needed.
> The various hackathons out there make it sound like data will be fine but
> it won't be.
>
> Cathy
> ------------------------------
> *From: *"Neal McBurnett via Bessig" <bessig at lists.esipfed.org>
> *To: *bessig at lists.esipfed.org
> *Sent: *Wednesday, February 15, 2017 9:17:08 AM
> *Subject: *[Bessig] Preserving open government data: Data Rescue event
> this weekend at University of Colorado
>
> As experts with data, we know that having access to data is the first
> requirement. But we face a risk that critical environmental data may
> disappear from the public domain, for political reasons.
>
> The folks at Data Refuge (http://www.ppehlab.org/datarefuge) are
> organizing a hackathon event this weekend Feb 18-19 in which volunteers
> will be trained to search for federal data that hasn't been preserved yet
> and help do so, partnering with repositories at places like the Internet
> Archive, datarefuge.org, and a consortium of major research libraries.
>
> Who knows what important and interesting data you may run across?
>
> Sign up for the event, to be held at CU Boulder's beautiful Law Library, at
>
>   https://www.eventbrite.com/e/data-rescue-boulder-tickets-31995427184
>
> Learn more at
>
>  https://www.facebook.com/dataRescueBoulder/
>
> End of Term Presidential Harvest 2016
>  http://digital2.library.unt.edu/nomination/eth2016/about/
>
> This is not the first time that there has been an End of Term Web
> harvest.  See previous ones at:
>
>  http://eotarchive.cdlib.org/
>
> Cheers,
>
> Neal McBurnett                 http://neal.mcburnett.org/
> _______________________________________________
> Bessig mailing list
> Bessig at lists.esipfed.org
> http://lists.deltaforce.net/mailman/listinfo/bessig
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Bessig mailing list
> Bessig at lists.esipfed.org
> http://lists.deltaforce.net/mailman/listinfo/bessig
>
>


-- 
Dan Ziskin, PhD
NCAR - Atmospheric Chemistry Observations & Modeling Laboratory
MOPITT Data Manager
303-497-2913
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.deltaforce.net/pipermail/bessig/attachments/20170215/9046dc8b/attachment.html>