DataRefuge
It’s common for data produced and maintained by government agencies to be removed from public access at the change of United States Presidential Administrations. Following the 2016 election, it became apparent that the new administration was planning to delete environmental data - specifically data related to climate change.
In order to protect this data and preserve public access, I helped lead volunteers and organize events where teams worked collaboratively to back up data that is essential to scientific research and projects that benefit our communities. The project gained traction quickly, expanding from Philly to over fifty cities and towns across the country.
We were labeled “Rogue Scientists” by Wired and once word got out we were even featured on the The Daily Show.
We were successful in building data scraping tools and a website that stores the climate change data. Now, the project has evolved into a storytelling campaign.