🗃️Collecting Scope

What are we collecting? Why?

Seattle Data Rescue Suggested Collection Criteria In an effort to continue advancing environmental advocacy, protection and actions, the Data Rescues in Seattle will focus on Climate Data with the following data themes and types (collecting scope):

  1. Geographic Parameters

    1. Pacific Northwest, Alaska, and Antarctic regions

  2. Time frame

    1. 2020 - present day

  3. Record Types

    1. Public Resources (examples: PSA about cooling centers, programming flyers about relevant talks)

    2. Agency Reports and assessments (examples: reports of pollutants in water systems)

    3. Grant funded project datasets from researchers or consultants (examples: grant reports, funding proposals, or publication samples)

  4. Data types

    1. Image files (JPG, TIFF, etc.)

    2. Digital documents (DOCX, PDF)

    3. Web files (WARC, ARC, or HAR files)

  5. Rights & Restrictions:

    1. Only public records (information created or maintained by a government agency that is available to the public upon request) (think those created via public funding or by government agencies)

  6. Languages

    1. English primary; other languages as volunteer skills are available

Rationale

We, the host of the 2025 Seattle Data Rescue, acknowledge the various threats many government data types face today and across time, but in order to keep the intention and scope manageable and relevant to our immediate Washington state and Pacific Northwest communities, we selected the above criteria. We note that many researchers, students, and educators in Washington place a heavy emphasis on environmental and climate data due to our local histories including agriculture, trade, cultural beliefs, and social activities. We attempt through our select scope to appeal to local volunteers as well as to utilize local knowledge to the best of our abilities.

Tangentially we include medical government records as we see clear connections across the topics of environmental conditions and public health, community well being, and environmental and economic prosperity. But at the moment we are not able to focus on other targeted government records and programs types like those discussing inclusive healthcare, culturally and racially relevant education structures, reduction in welfare services like Medicare and Medicaid, or Labor Rights cutbacks. This is a resource limitation that we acknowledge and invite other to take up through their own Data Rescues.

We have also chosen to prioritize federal government data due to the highly vocal apprehension from federal officials. We assume that given Washington State’s more supportive attitude towards environmental and climate science initiatives, there are fewer immediate threats compared to the federal government or other less supportive states.

Other Data Repository Collection Development Criteria

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