“DataRefuge is a public, collaborative project designed to address the following concerns about federal climate and environmental data:
- What are the best ways to safeguard data?
- How do federal agencies play crucial roles in data collection, management, and distribution?
- How do government priorities impact data’s accessibility?
- Which projects and research fields depend on federal data?
- Which data sets are of value to research and local communities, and why?
DataRefuge is also an initiative committed to identifying, assessing, prioritizing, securing, and distributing reliable copies of federal climate and environmental data so that it remains available to researchers. Data collected as part of the #DataRefuge initiative will be stored in multiple, trusted locations to help ensure continued accessibility.
DataRefuge acknowledges–and in fact draws attention to–the fact that there are no guarantees of perfectly safe information. But there are ways that we can create safe and trustworthy copies. DataRefuge is thus also a project to develop the best methods, practices, and protocols to do so.
DataRefuge depends on local communities. We welcome new collaborators who want to organize DataRescue Events or build DataRefuge in other ways.
There are many ways to be involved with building DataRefuge. They’re not mutually exclusive!…(More)”